Summary
Chicago-based accessibility specialist with experience as a front-end developer and web team manager. Committed to accessibility beyond compliance and believes that people come first.
Employment
Ad Hoc
Senior Software Engineer, Front-End Accessibility
November 2021 to Present – Remote
- Contractor and accessibility specialist for the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs’ modernized VA.gov Platform, working on the Platform Governance Team.
- Helps accessibility “shift left” by reviewing user flows, prototypes, and research plans.
- Advises teams on accessibility requirements and best practices throughout the product development lifecycle via “must/should/consider” feedback.
- Conducts a full “staging review” audit of coded Veteran-facing products to ensure conformance to WCAG 2.1 and adherence to VA.gov experience standards.
- Leads accessibility orientation, education, and documentation effort for the VA.gov Platform.
Edward Jones
Senior UX Accessibility Specialist
June 2021 to November 2021 – Remote
- Worked with product teams to ensure the accessibility of digital tools used by Edward Jones branches and customers.
- Educated UX designers, developers, QA analysts, product owners, and others on accessibility and inclusion best practices.
NC State University
Manager, Design & Web Services
October 2020 to June 2021 – Remote
- Manager and team lead for a five-person web development and consulting team based in central IT.
- Service owner for enterprise-level content management system and university-wide “broadcast” email notification service.
Web Solutions Implementation Specialist
October 2014 to October 2020 – Raleigh, NC and Remote
- Senior developer and accessibility lead for central IT web development and consulting team.
- Trainer for web content creation, content management, security, and accessibility.
- Interim Team Lead from May 2020 to October 2020 prior to promotion to manager.
WebAssign
Content Specialist
October 2011 to October 2014 – Raleigh, NC
- Created interactive mathematics education content using HTML, Perl, and Mathematica.
- Provided tier-2 content support for math faculty customers.
Selected Volunteering
Chicago Board of Election Commissioners
Election Coordinator
November 2022 to Present – Chicago, IL
WordPress Accessibility Day
Speaker Selection Committee Member
May 2020 to October 2020 – Remote
WPCampus
Co-Organizer, Gutenberg Accessibility Audit
October 2018 to April 2019 – Remote
Education
Northwestern University
Bachelor of Arts
September 2007 to June 2011 – Evanston, IL
- Mathematics (major)
- Science in Human Culture (adjunct major)
Personal Narrative
I am a software engineer focused on digital accessibility and committed to building services that work for everyone.
I center my work on inclusive design principles and the core belief that people come first. I also believe that when we build things, we have an obligation to think about the consequences of how they might be used—and when possible to ensure that they’re used to help others, and not to hurt, exclude, or take advantage of.
Whether it’s in your personal life or your professional life, I believe you should be kind, generous, and humane. I’m not always good at those things, but I always try to do better.