Hello
When I started college, I was going to be a journalist. My first AP style class, however, suggested that words were not the route I was destined for.
I switched my focus to design and found I could still tell great stories through visuals.
Throughout my career, I’ve had a lot of amazing opportunities to make an impact through design. While working for the Las Vegas Sun, I resigned the business newspaper into a magazine that reflected the life of Vegas. When I joined Gannett, I moved the Cincinnati Enquirer from a broadsheet to a compact, which allowed for new, dynamic storytelling in print.
The world of digital storytelling has been even more rewarding because I’m not restricted to what can physically be printed. I’ve been able to ask – “what features will tell this story better?” This has led to new features like video pull quotes, glossary modules and recirculation carousels to enhance reader experience and find new ways to tell great stories.
I always love to talk design, so reach out and start a conversation.
A police department says it backs its female officers. The women's voices tell a different story
They survived the tornado that leveled the Mayfield candle factory. That was just the beginning
An analysis of NFL coaching staffs shows how white quarterbacks coaches get fast-tracked, while Black running backs coaches get stuck.
This Utah startup had no public health experience, but GOP governors paid it $219M for questionable COVID-19 tests
USA TODAY spent weeks following investigators to the scenes of suspected war crimes in Ukraine. The pursuit of justice in wartime is far from clear.
A seemingly endless supply of memes designed to sow discord and blur the lines between fact and fiction flourish unabated online.
Serial rapist stalks vulnerable city while Staunton police, women’s college stay silent
A USA TODAY investigation exposes a culture of retaliation against police whistleblowers
Psychiatric residential youth facilities are supposed to be a safe space. But a USA TODAY Network investigation, reveals children are not getting what they came for: treatment.
13 investigations, no court-martials: Here's how the US Navy and Marine Corps quietly discharged white supremacists
Her parents said she was their child. She wasn't. She is one of about 12 million undocumented immigrants in the US. Every path to citizenship is long.
G4S, the largest private security company in the world, sells armed guards as a high-quality, low-cost alternative to police. This is the price.
Digital Design Lead - USA TODAY Network
January 2019 - Present
Work with product developers to add new features and functionality to digital storytelling frameworks that enhance the reader’s experience and offer new ways to tell stories more effectively. This process includes feature conceptualization, prototyping, developer handoff and VQA.
Created a new Design Studio training curriculum to meet quarterly and yearly goals of increasing designers' involvement in online story projects and training focused on the proprietary platforms and frameworks for online story projects. Ran and instructed weekly training classes that consisted of 20+ designers in each class. After the first year of training, over 30 designers completed online projects, up from 5 in the year before.
Art directed and designed the EPPY award-winning USA TODAY Network series, “Copy, Paste, Legislate,” that found more than 10,000 bills nationwide that were copied almost verbatim from models written by special interest groups. The online story had more than 525,000 page views in the first week.
Collaborated with USA TODAY Graphics and The Arizona Republic to design, art direct and develop the project “Ahead of the Fire,” which is a deep-dive data analysis of wildfire hazards across 760 million acres along the Western coast of America. This project won the “Best Innovation Project on a Website” EPPY Award.
Designed the project “Taken,” an exclusive report by Greenville News about civil asset forfeiture and its prominence in South Carolina's Black communities. As a result of the project, the South Carolina state legislature moved forward with a bipartisan bill that would require due process before law enforcement can seize an individual’s property.
Design Team Leader - USA TODAY Network
November 2011 - January 2019
Lead the team responsible for transitioning the Design Studio’s primary source of communication from Skype/email to Microsoft Teams. Responsible for creating workflows that would enable studio designers to communicate with Gannett’s 110 newspapers in areas concerning daily and weekly production. Within a month, created, coordinated and instructed 40+ training classes for all 300+ Design Studio employees and 500+ newsroom employees.
Created and instructed a series of classes for studio designers that focused on a variety of news design topics including graphic design fundamentals, illustration, art direction, and photo editing. The training classes meet the department’s yearly goal to offer employees more opportunities for career development.
Part of the management team responsible for transitioning the daily of design and production from the newsrooms to the Design Studio. The transition included quickly building a relationship with the newsroom and assisting the editors and reporters in switching to a new content management system.
Redesigned the Cincinnati Enquirer’s broadsheet newspaper to create a unique style that better fit its new compact paper size. The redesign focused on creating a news magazine style that introduced bolder visuals and more dynamic alternative story forms. Designed a new logo that was used in both print and online publications. Responsible for creating a comprehensive style guide that included display typography, section colors and theming, and paragraph styles.
Conceptualized and designed the Indianapolis Star’s first front-page editorial condemning Indiana’s Religious Freedom Restoration Act that did not include protections for the LGBTQ community. Under extreme deadlines and design limitations, created a dynamic front page that went viral. Within a week of publication, then-Gov. Mike Pence signed a new law protecting the LGBTQ community.
Art Director - VEGAS INC
January 2011 - September 2011
Within a 10-week deadline, redesigned the weekly newspaper formerly known as InBusiness into the award winning VEGAS INC magazine. The redesign focused on creating a magazine that did not look or feel like other business trade publications, but offered a reading experience that was more in the tone and style of the city of Las Vegas. Responsible for creating a comprehensive style guide that included display typography, section colors and theming, and paragraph styles. Also responsible for creating all rebranding promotional material and visual identity assets.
Lead Designer - Las Vegas Sun
February 2010 - January 2011
Designed the paper, including the front page, on daily deadlines. Conceptualized and created custom illustrations. Directed freelance illustrators on individual projects
Arizona State University
Design Management - 2009
Chabot College
Mass Communications - 2007
Project Management
Jira ◽ MS Planner ◽ Trello
Development
HTML ◽ CSS ◽ Javascript
Design
Photoshop ◽ Illustrator ◽ InDesign
Prototyping
Figma ◽ XD ◽ Sketch
Video and Audio
Premiere Pro ◽ Audacity
I'm always looking for new opportunities and projects. If you have any questions or would like to work together, send me a message.
