As a child, my inquisitive nature led me to wonder how I could use technology to solve difficult problems. For my senior year project in high school, I designed, built, and programmed an autonomous firefighting robot.

I studied engineering in college, and what I enjoyed most about my class and research projects was the creative work—solving problems via sketching, prototyping, experimenting, building, and programming. I was excited to continue doing these sorts of things after graduation, and so I obtained a job as an automotive engineer, combining my passion for cars and technology.

I enjoyed designing in-car user experiences in my first couple automotive engineering jobs, but much of my time was consumed by mundane tasks, such as capturing meeting minutes and submitting status reports. When I looked around, I noticed that my colleagues in design were the ones doing the majority of the creative work—exactly the sort of work I wanted to do. After spending a couple years honing my design skills over the course of a handful of personal projects, I obtained my first job as an automotive user experience (UX) designer, and I haven't looked back.

In my most recent role as a senior UX designer at Rivian Automotive, I defined and designed new in-vehicle turn-by-turn navigation experiences. I enjoy serving as a thought leader in the in-vehicle user experience space, and I am a named inventor on four issued and 22 pending patents for design concepts that reduce driver distraction and improve road safety.