My Approach to Driving Initiatives

Colleagues have described me as:

I employ these traits when taking on transformative endeavors such as driving tool adoption, storytelling through film and hosting community events.

At American Family Insurance, our content processes were cumbersome and caused internal friction. Migrating work to Ditto improved workflows and provided a source of truth for content.
If you want to drive an initiative, one way to gain momentum is by hosting events. This can build community and strengthen support.
In 2015, I co-founded the Portland Accessibility and UX Meetup. We hosted 20 events in our first 3 years. The group is now 1600+ members strong and has put on over 47 total events. Accessibility practitioners have forged connections and our local tech community is stronger.
While at CVS Health, I helped produce their first Global Accessibility Awareness Day series. I curated a variety of topics for 12 sessions which were attended by 300 internal employees. Post-event surveys reported that attendance helped employees build empathy for people with disabilities. Our accessibility initiative increased buy-in as a result of the effort.
Storytelling can change lives and inspire audiences to take action. This was the case with my award-winning documentary Austin Unbound: a Deaf Journey of Transgender Heroism. It won awards and was translated into 9 foreign languages.