I’m a product design leader who is passionate about solving complex problems, highly attuned to context, pride myself on synthesizing knowledge from research and experience, and love inspiring, challenging, and supporting teams. Over the past 20 years, I’ve focused on products and services in the mobile space, particularly on the interplay between physical and digital design. I’ve worked as a design researcher, interaction designer, and design manager before assuming my current role as Director, Product Design at ITHAKA where I lead the JSTOR design team. Previously I was Head of UX at Motorola Mobility where I led 6 studios across Brazil, China, and the US and Director, Product Design at Grubhub. Bringing together a diverse team is a natural extension of my own international experience: I was raised in a Spanish/English speaking household, spent 7 years of my primary and secondary education in Germany, and from 2015 to 2017 lived and worked in São Paulo, Brazil. I love mentoring designers, whether they are on my team or students that I advise in the Engineering Design Innovation (EDI) program at Northwestern University or occasionally mentees from my alma mater, the Institute of Design (ID) at The Illinois Institute of Technology. When not working, I can be found cooking, hunting for the next best restaurants, practicing Portuguese or learning to dance samba.
