Ever since I was a teenager, music has been my deepest passion. Instead of hanging out with my friends on a Friday night, I often choose to stay home and sit in front of my computer with my music software open and my piano right beside me. I’d spend hours upon hours experimenting with sounds, composing productions, and refining my talent (which was largely non-existent at the time).
There were many people I looked up to in the music world, and I drew inspiration and advice from many of them. I remember once hearing someone say, “If my music isn’t deeply connecting and relating with people, then I’m not doing my job,” and this thought always stuck with me.
Music is the first thing that allowed me to learn how to understand and empathize with the human experience.
I attended the University of Washington with a major in Sociology. I pursued a degree in this field simply because I found it interesting, but I picked up valuable skills along the way, including research analysis and an understanding of human behavior.
After working various jobs over the next few years, I decided I was ready for an adventure. I packed my belongings and moved to China to teach English. I found myself living in a small city, where I was one of three foreigners and very few people spoke English. While it was difficult to communicate at times, I developed amazing friends and created unforgettable memories. This experience was life-changing and it ignited a love of traveling.
Upon returning to my home state of Washington, I began working as a fraud analyst for a retail company. While I had no experience in the field at the time, I found I had an intuition for preventing fraud. Shortly after I was hired, the head of our department left, and I began leading the fraud team. Over the following months to years, we constantly beat our improvement goals, driving fraud rates lower than we ever expected, and saving the company over two million dollars in fraudulent activity per year.
Fortunately, my jobs and hobbies along the way have equipped me with invaluable experience and practice in flexing my creative muscles, using personal judgment, empathy, and providing positive experiences.
Moreover, my recent experience in UX has been incredibly rewarding. I've had the chance to fully engage in the design process, collaborating closely with cross-functional teams to enhance our product features. Through extensive research, I've pinpointed areas for improvement, validated design solutions, and leveraged data-driven insights to elevate the overall user experience.
Aside from UX, you can find me hanging out at the lake on sunny days, taking pictures on a film camera, cooking, traveling, and of course, writing music.
If you want to swap travel stories, share recipes, or you’re interested in working together, please feel free to reach out.
