Kathy’s path to design wasn’t a typical one. Her first career was as a technical writer at a consulting agency where she thrived. She loved the variety of projects and the consulting aspect – often what clients think they need is different than what they really need. And it was in that role where she first experienced the tension that can occur between the needs of the client and their business goals with the needs of the end user. She also witnessed her first usability test and knew someday she wanted to work in that field.

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After 14 years in her career, she pivoted to user experience in order to make a bigger impact on the end user – instead of helping users understand how to use a tool or application, she wanted to design it. Soon after that, she decided to pivot to design leadership to drive the UX topic and influence the organization in which she worked. Kathy has worked in many parts of business and has founded and built several UX/CX teams. Next in her career, she hopes to make bigger contributions to the state of design and to the complex challenges we face today.