Great inventors are childlike at heart and understand play, yet that’s not enough.  In order to be an effective designer, one must understand the creation process from ideation to production, something I have mastered over the last two decades.  As an innovator and designer, I am an expert in the various stages of designing fun, interactive, tech-based consumer products.  

I'm a maker at heart and have been since I was a child.  By sixth grade, I was in my dad’s shop using power tools unassisted (not sure if that’s pc today!) and creating fabulous houses for my guinea pigs, with screened windows and flower boxes.  I also liked to take things apart and put them back together, and in high school, I made animated films and was a photographer with a darkroom in the basement. 

My grandpa and dad owned a leather handbag factory and I spent time walking the production line, which was fascinating to me. 

I initially went to University to study photography, but by my sophomore year, I realized that being behind the camera, removed from the action, wasn’t for me.  So, I took a career aptitude test which determined 5 careers that would be good to me.  Photographer, owning a print shop, physical therapist, industrial designer, landscape architect.  I'd never heard of industrial design, and when I looked into it, it resonated, so I changed majors and transferred to Arizona State where I was the only woman in the ID program.  Mattel held a toy design competition at ASU, which I entered and won.   I did some research and found a new material that the judges had never seen before and used it in my project.  It was this curiosity that won me the prize and I received a semester-long internship.  That’s how I started my career in toys.  I stayed in toys because I love to have fun, and it’s a pretty fun job.  Plus I got to invent the projects that I worked on, and that is very satisfying.

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Whether I’m sketching or researching trends my goal as a creator is to find a pain point and invent the solution. I welcome diversity in the design process and relish being in the middle of the strong team.