Teaching and Community

Throughout my career, teaching, speaking, mentoring, and contributing to the broader design and startup communities have sharpened my thinking while helping others grow. These experiences keep me connected to new ideas, emerging designers, entrepreneurs, and a profession that keeps evolving.

Teaching

I've taught within the Human-Computer Interaction graduate program at DePaul University for more than 20 years, bringing industry lessons into the classroom and new student perspectives back into my work. Teaching forces me to continually question my beliefs, make complex ideas understandable, and stay close to how the profession is changing. Recent courses include:

AI & Experience Design
Exploring AI-enabled design workflows, designing AI experiences, human-AI interaction, and the emerging responsibilities of designers.

Design for Startups
Helping designers work effectively in environments defined by ambiguity, limited resources, rapid learning, and constant change.

Foundations of Human-Computer Interaction
Building a strong foundation in human-centered design, research, interaction design, prototyping, and evaluation.

Speaking

Speaking gives me an opportunity to step outside the day-to-day work of leading teams and explore the ideas shaping our profession. My recent talks have focused on how designers can thrive in fast-moving organizations, how AI is changing UX, and how we can better connect design and research to business outcomes. Recent talks include:

How to Thrive as a Startup Designer: Practical Habits for Fast-Moving Teams
UX Days, University of Illinois · May 2026 · Speaker

Practical lessons for designers working in environments where priorities shift quickly, resources are limited, and the ability to learn and adapt can matter as much as craft.

AI & UX Design
Chicago ELITE Roundtable · February 2026 · Moderator

A conversation about the evolving relationship between AI and UX, including what it means for the products we design, the ways we work, and the role designers can play in shaping what comes next.

Connecting UX Research Insights to Business Outcomes
ProdCon Chicago · October 2025 · Panelist

A discussion about moving research beyond insights and recommendations by connecting what we learn about customers to product strategy, organizational priorities, and measurable business outcomes.

Mentoring

In addition to staying in touch with former students and co-workers, I serve as a mentor through 1871, Chicago's innovation hub, working with founders and early-stage teams on product strategy, customer experience, and building design into their companies from the start.

Working with founders keeps me close to what I enjoy most about product development: navigating ambiguity, asking questions that uncover new possibilities, and turning early ideas into products people genuinely need.

Entrepreneurship & Community

As a member of DePaul University's Entrepreneurship Council, I contribute perspectives from design leadership, product development, education, and my own experience building a company.

The council brings together leaders from Chicago's business and startup communities to strengthen entrepreneurship at DePaul and connect students, educators, founders, and industry.

It's also an opportunity to advocate for something I believe strongly: design belongs at the beginning of the entrepreneurial process, not simply at the end when it's time to make the product easier to use.

Design Education

I'm building a new design education initiative focused on the challenges designers are facing right now, from navigating their careers to understanding how AI is reshaping the way we research, create, collaborate, and build products.

Through short, practical videos and resources, I'm translating lessons from more than two decades of designing products, leading teams, teaching, and mentoring into ideas designers can use immediately.

The goal isn't to prescribe one way to practice design. It's to give designers better tools, stronger frameworks, and new ways of thinking so they can make better decisions.

Topics I'm exploring include: AI + design · Design leadership · Career growth · Product thinking · Working in startups · Building effective teams · Designing AI experiences