I’ve been speaking professionally for over 10 years—from local events to international conferences. If you’re interested in having me speak at your event, conference, or livestream, please reach out to me on LinkedIn. I love connecting with audiences on topics including:
- DesignOps
- Design systems
- Inclusive design—accessibility, localization, neurodiversity
- Diversity and inclusion in tech
- Careers in tech
- Tree equity and environmental justice
Selected talks
🧰 The DesignOps Starter Kit
After learning them the hard way, I cover five important things when starting DesignOps that most people don’t think consider.
Presented at DesignOps Summit 2021 (virtual).
Fun fact: Attending this conference in 2019 helped me realize I wanted to focus on DesignOps. 💜
🤝 Unifying Your Product Design Org through DesignOps
I share with the UX community how DesignOps can level up your team to do their very best.
Presented at UX Y’all 2021 (virtual)
⚡️Decolonizing Your Design System: Unveiling Biases and Revolutionizing Inclusion
Is your design system racist? In this talk, I share the inherent biases and limitations within traditional design frameworks that hinder inclusivity. I discuss ways you can question the status quo. This was one of my hardest talks to craft and deliver, but ultimately one that I’m super proud of personally and professionally.
Presented at:
- Converge UK 2023 (Manchester)
- Design Matters 2023 (Copenhagen)
- UX Y’all 2023 (Raleigh, NC)
- Clarity 2023 (San Francisco)
🧩 Information Architects: The Missing Link in Design Systems
While advising design system teams, it was eye-opening to see how rarely information architects came into orbit on design system work. Countless teams struggled with their design token structures and naming conventions. I saw an opportunity for information architects to collaborate with design system makers to untangle some of these challenges. This talk introduces information architects to these opportunities. I wrote a similar article for design system makers.
Presented at: the IA Conference 2024 (Seattle)
If you've never attended the IA Conference, definitely consider it. It's a lovely conference full of amazing people. I liken it to summer camp for those in IA/UX/content!
💜 Inviting People In
Hiring a more diverse team is just a start. Making people truly feel welcome is something we often forget about. I talk about how you can really invite people in so they have the psychological safety to do amazing work.
Presented at:
- Beyond Tellerrand 2022 (Berlin)
- THAT Conference 2023 (Wisconsin)
- Design Matters’ Design and DEI Masterclass 2023 (Virtual)
- Design teams at enterprise companies
❤️ Accessible Design: Designing for Humans
I’ve given extremely thorough talks and workshops on accessibility. This talk’s a bit different because it captures the essence of how to think about accessible design—making things authentically better for people.
Presented at Triangle UXPA’s lightning talk series on accessibility.
👋 Oh hey, you’ve reached the bottom of this! If you’d like to see more, check out my SpeakerDeck which includes the slides to most of my talks.