THIS IS ME.

I have a difficult time taking myself seriously, like, 90% of the time. I choose to surround myself with things that are beautiful or cozy and if possible, I'll find a way to collide the two into a beautiful cozy mess. I struggle with feeling like a walking Seattle cliche, but c'mon.. who doesn't like coffee and hiking?

In a past life (read: before UX), I was a biologist trying my darndest to answer such imperative questions* as:
 - Why do some butterfly wings have stripes?
 - Can we convince mosquitoes to eat something other than
     blood?
 - Can we use silkworms to tell us when milk has gone bad?

But somewhere along the way, I fell in love with the process, the people, and the art behind UX and I made a pivot. And that's where I am now. I gravitate towards starting with the big picture and narrowing down to flesh out the details, emphasizing the importance of conducting comprehensive user & market research and using data to inform design decisions. I was born & raised a skeptic so I tend to ask more than the suggested "5 why's" to believe the things in front of me. 

In my free-time life, I spend an inordinate amount of time collecting natural artifacts (insects, bones, etc), going on adventures with my Yeti pup, and getting to know people over (preferably fermented) beverages. 
 

*Note: While finding the pithy quirk in actual and serious scientific questions is fun, I am by no means belittling the work I did. My biology work includes a published paper in Nature Communications (butterflies), as well as work in conjunction with Eliminate Dengue, the Gates Foundation, CIDR and others to mitigate the spread of vector-borne diseases and to improve the quality of agricultural products in Eastern Africa (mosquitoes/silkworms).