MY STORY

As an experienced visual communication designer, strategist, and educator, I have won numerous accolades for my highly creative, human-centered approach to brand-building, my instinctive knack for solving communications problems, and my strong leadership skills.

I lived and practiced in the Los Angeles area for over 16 years, working with a number of major creative agencies in Southern California before founding my own company in 1996. As principal for Dig Design, my design thinking and mastery of contemporary processes attracted numerous clients, who credit my work as invaluable in helping them to achieve—and exceed—their communications objectives. My broad mix of clients has ranged from small startups to Fortune 500 companies with internationally known brands such as Mattel, Inc., Sunkist Paramount Farms, Knowledge Adventure, Nokia, Sony, and many others.

After I moved back to my hometown of Milwaukee, WI, I began teaching at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee in the Peck School of the Arts in their Design and Visual Communication Program as an adjunct lecturer, mentoring the next generation of thinking, tactical designers. In 2013 I was offered a full-time faculty position as Lecturer and has now taught almost every course the Design and Visual Communication department offers. I also oversee the internship program for the Department of Art and Design and I am the faculty advisor for the AIGA UWM student group. Most recently, I was invited as a guest lecturer to teach design and visual communication at Hubei University of Technology, Wuhan, Hubei Province, China.

My professional practice gives my role as a teacher an important authenticity. I encourage my students to find out not only who they are as designers, but who they are as people in a larger creative community. My courses provide opportunities for students to build their portfolio and develop their process and craft. My approach to teaching is to build teams and encourage collaboration through critiques that foster innovation and independent thinking. Only after the students have critiqued each other and shared solutions for the problem do I interject my thoughts if they haven't already been introduced.

I am the founding President Emeritus of AIGA Wisconsin, the Professional Association of Design, and in 2014 I was awarded the AIGA WI Fellow, the highest honor a chapter can award a member of the design community. In 2018 I was honored by a collective of designers, advertisers and artists as among the leading women in Milwaukee's creative community.

I received my BFA in Packaging and Graphic Design with Honors from Art Center College of Art and Design, and attended Rocky Mountain College of Art and Design, majoring in Advertising and Graphic Design.