Recent work
Over the past 20+ years, I've designed in high-stakes, high-complexity environments where there's no room for error and where millions of people depend on them — legacy modernization, 0→1 builds, and now AI-integrated systems.
I specialize in building and maturing design systems that teams adopt because they solve real problems — token architectures that cross tech stacks, contribution models that scale without fragmenting, and cross-product alignment that holds.
I lead and manage my design team from inside the work, not above it. Developing designers into senior and lead roles while keeping a hand in the craft.
Federal NDA: For Federal projects subject to a NDA's, no further details can be shared in this public format.
AI at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
VA AI Pilots
My role: UX Design Lead on the AI Pilot team.
Problem: Clinical staff working within VA's legacy infrastructure lack efficient ways to synthesize complex patient data, creating bottlenecks in veterans' benefits decisions at the moments that matter most.
Solution: I was brought in to lead a design turnaround, partnering with research, engineering, and data scientists to deliver a conversational AI tool for clinical staff and VA’s first MCP server connecting to a legacy VistA EHR system. This work set direction for VA’s broader AI strategy.
"...Amazing to see the way the team was able to change direction and end the year delivering a tool that is on the cutting edge of genAI practices today, and hasn’t been done at VA yet." – Government Partner
Shipped: A generative AI tool, "VA GPT," was used by nearly 100,000 staff as of September 2025, saving each an estimated two to three hours per week.
Public record: Designing with AI: Designing with AI, what I learned designing AI systems for Veterans, and the role I played | AI Pilot Task| AI at VA | Signal: Bring your AI game | Accelerate Modernization
Problem: Clinical staff working within VA's legacy infrastructure lack efficient ways to synthesize complex patient data, creating bottlenecks in veterans' benefits decisions at the moments that matter most.
Solution: I was brought in to lead a design turnaround, partnering with research, engineering, and data scientists to deliver a conversational AI tool for clinical staff and VA’s first MCP server connecting to a legacy VistA EHR system. This work set direction for VA’s broader AI strategy.
"...Amazing to see the way the team was able to change direction and end the year delivering a tool that is on the cutting edge of genAI practices today, and hasn’t been done at VA yet." – Government Partner
Shipped: A generative AI tool, "VA GPT," was used by nearly 100,000 staff as of September 2025, saving each an estimated two to three hours per week.
Public record: Designing with AI: Designing with AI, what I learned designing AI systems for Veterans, and the role I played | AI Pilot Task| AI at VA | Signal: Bring your AI game | Accelerate Modernization
B2B at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
Maturing a multi-brand Design System at CMS
My role: UX Design Lead on the CMS Design System team.
Problem: The CMS design system needed to serve three distinct brands — Healthcare.gov, Medicare.gov, and CMS.gov — across product teams building in different tech stacks, with inconsistent usability, accessibility, and design patterns across all of them.
Solution: I ran a discovery-first process: meeting with product teams sprint over sprint to surface pain points, then prioritizing system maturation with client alignment based on what teams actually needed. Working closely with the lead engineer, I helped architect a semantic token structure that let React and Angular teams adopt from the same foundation without forcing a migration. I reviewed pull requests, delivered annotated Figma files communicating design intent, and drove cross-brand alignment — including global header consensus across all three brands in two months.
Outcome: Adoption was voluntary because the system solved real problems. Millions of people rely on CMS digital services each month, powered by the design system we matured together. Internet archive of White House Fact Sheet.
Shipped: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Design System
Problem: The CMS design system needed to serve three distinct brands — Healthcare.gov, Medicare.gov, and CMS.gov — across product teams building in different tech stacks, with inconsistent usability, accessibility, and design patterns across all of them.
Solution: I ran a discovery-first process: meeting with product teams sprint over sprint to surface pain points, then prioritizing system maturation with client alignment based on what teams actually needed. Working closely with the lead engineer, I helped architect a semantic token structure that let React and Angular teams adopt from the same foundation without forcing a migration. I reviewed pull requests, delivered annotated Figma files communicating design intent, and drove cross-brand alignment — including global header consensus across all three brands in two months.
Outcome: Adoption was voluntary because the system solved real problems. Millions of people rely on CMS digital services each month, powered by the design system we matured together. Internet archive of White House Fact Sheet.
Shipped: Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services Design System
Zero-to-one at Internal Revenue Service (IRS)
Paper-to-digital Modernization
My role: UX Design Lead, IRS Individual Taxpayer Identification Number (ITIN) modernization
Problem: IRS teams processed ITIN applications through a paper-based intake workflow that slowed internal operations, increased staff cognitive load, and delayed service to taxpayers.
Goal: Led design of a 0→1 low-code intake workflow, replacing manual paper handling with a fully digitized, end-to-end process — from research and assumption testing through delivery.
Outcome: Delivered a system MVP that cut paper dependency, streamlined intake for IRS teams, and reduced taxpayer wait times — advancing the agency's paper-to-digital modernization goals.
Public record: ITIN-digitalization-contract | IRS ITIN
Problem: IRS teams processed ITIN applications through a paper-based intake workflow that slowed internal operations, increased staff cognitive load, and delayed service to taxpayers.
Goal: Led design of a 0→1 low-code intake workflow, replacing manual paper handling with a fully digitized, end-to-end process — from research and assumption testing through delivery.
Outcome: Delivered a system MVP that cut paper dependency, streamlined intake for IRS teams, and reduced taxpayer wait times — advancing the agency's paper-to-digital modernization goals.
Public record: ITIN-digitalization-contract | IRS ITIN
B2B at Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS)
CMS Quality Payment Program (QPP)
My role: Sr. UX Designer on the QPP HCD team.
Problem: Practitioners logging into QPP struggled to identify which reporting actions drove their highest-quality payout, and the team's design system had no shared token foundation; React and Angular teams were building components independently, risking fragmentation as the system scaled.
Solution: I restructured the logged-in experience using OOUX & IA methods so practitioners could quickly surface their highest-payout reporting actions. In parallel, I laid the foundation for a token architecture spanning Figma, Style Dictionary, and JSON, enabling seamless flow of component tokens across both React and Angular teams, without forcing a migration.
Outcome: Practitioners could act on their highest-value reporting tasks faster, and 8 teams were able to use a shared design language without disruption to their existing stacks. The foundation held after I left the team — Kate continued the work, scoping a program-wide redesign across 10+ applications and cutting development time by over 65% building on the architecture we established.
Shipped: https://qpp.cms.gov/
Public record: Quality Payment Program Merit-based Incentive | Agile-6 award announcement | ICF QPP Contract Award
Problem: Practitioners logging into QPP struggled to identify which reporting actions drove their highest-quality payout, and the team's design system had no shared token foundation; React and Angular teams were building components independently, risking fragmentation as the system scaled.
Solution: I restructured the logged-in experience using OOUX & IA methods so practitioners could quickly surface their highest-payout reporting actions. In parallel, I laid the foundation for a token architecture spanning Figma, Style Dictionary, and JSON, enabling seamless flow of component tokens across both React and Angular teams, without forcing a migration.
Outcome: Practitioners could act on their highest-value reporting tasks faster, and 8 teams were able to use a shared design language without disruption to their existing stacks. The foundation held after I left the team — Kate continued the work, scoping a program-wide redesign across 10+ applications and cutting development time by over 65% building on the architecture we established.
Shipped: https://qpp.cms.gov/
Public record: Quality Payment Program Merit-based Incentive | Agile-6 award announcement | ICF QPP Contract Award
B2B at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
MVP Enterprise Developer Platform
My role: Senior UX Designer on the Developer Experience team
Problem: The VA faced a challenge in addressing a void within its organization, which resulted in duplicative efforts. This issue stemmed from the lack of a centralized approach to sharing digital services across siloed teams.
Solution: I designed a tightly time-boxed 0→1 MVP internal developer platform to set the stage for continued Digital Transformation at the VA. Ongoing authorization allows VA to ship secure, authorized software 80% faster, placing VA as a frontrunner in the federal civilian agency space.
Working directly with engineers, I co-branded Spotify's open-source Backstage.io platform by adapting the VA Design System's design tokens into Material UI — translating visual decisions into structured JSON and ensuring they were consumable by the development team.
Shipped: code.va.gov (Internal to VA, Citrix Access Gateway required)
Public record: The VA Lighthouse Developer Experience program champions operational excellence.
Problem: The VA faced a challenge in addressing a void within its organization, which resulted in duplicative efforts. This issue stemmed from the lack of a centralized approach to sharing digital services across siloed teams.
Solution: I designed a tightly time-boxed 0→1 MVP internal developer platform to set the stage for continued Digital Transformation at the VA. Ongoing authorization allows VA to ship secure, authorized software 80% faster, placing VA as a frontrunner in the federal civilian agency space.
Working directly with engineers, I co-branded Spotify's open-source Backstage.io platform by adapting the VA Design System's design tokens into Material UI — translating visual decisions into structured JSON and ensuring they were consumable by the development team.
Shipped: code.va.gov (Internal to VA, Citrix Access Gateway required)
Public record: The VA Lighthouse Developer Experience program champions operational excellence.
B2B at U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs (VA)
Maturing a Developer Experience Platform
My role: Senior UX designer serving as a super individual contributor, supporting several teams across a 115+ person platform.
Problem: The challenge was to evolve a beta API service into a comprehensive developer-focused ecosystem, enabling consumers to build tools that better serve Veterans.
Solution: I advanced the platform from beta to version 2.0 by redesigning the onboarding path, support, and API collection, creating a scalable, developer-focused API ecosystem.
The VA Lighthouse Developer Experience program drives operational excellence, modernizing VA technology to enhance user experiences with secure digital tools. ~ VA’s Office of Information & Technology
Shipped: VA Developer platform
Problem: The challenge was to evolve a beta API service into a comprehensive developer-focused ecosystem, enabling consumers to build tools that better serve Veterans.
Solution: I advanced the platform from beta to version 2.0 by redesigning the onboarding path, support, and API collection, creating a scalable, developer-focused API ecosystem.
The VA Lighthouse Developer Experience program drives operational excellence, modernizing VA technology to enhance user experiences with secure digital tools. ~ VA’s Office of Information & Technology
Shipped: VA Developer platform
B2C at Eastern Washington University (EWU)
User-centered full site redesign
My role: UX Developer
Problem: It had been nearly a decade since the last time the website had undergone any change, and honestly, it looked like it.
I hate that a new tab opens every time you click a link. It drives me crazy. I also think the look of the website is a little... Not very exciting.
—Student feedback.
Solution: I integrated user-centered UX design methods to inform the redesign of ewu.edu, driven by the needs of prospective students.
After launch, we condensed and documented the design patterns that surfaced from the main site so that we stayed consistent in building the rest of the college sites out using the same user-centered frameworks.
Full write-up about the University website redesign on Medium
Shipped: ewu.edu
Problem: It had been nearly a decade since the last time the website had undergone any change, and honestly, it looked like it.
I hate that a new tab opens every time you click a link. It drives me crazy. I also think the look of the website is a little... Not very exciting.
—Student feedback.
Solution: I integrated user-centered UX design methods to inform the redesign of ewu.edu, driven by the needs of prospective students.
After launch, we condensed and documented the design patterns that surfaced from the main site so that we stayed consistent in building the rest of the college sites out using the same user-centered frameworks.
Full write-up about the University website redesign on Medium
Shipped: ewu.edu
2nd Watch
Establish an Enterprise Design System
My Role: Consultant, Design System SME
Problem: 2ndWatch's next-generation SaaS suite lacked design standards, resulting in fragmented UI, misaligned components, and technical debt that made the product harder to build and harder to use.
Solution: Brought in as the design systems expert, I built the foundational design language from the ground up over eight months — an 8px baseline grid, spacing scale, WCAG AAA color palette, typography system, elevation and shadow model, interaction and animation standards, and a full component library covering navigation, forms, tables, cards, modals, search, and page layout. The result was a 23-page system specification built for developers to implement consistently across the enterprise product suite.
Outcome: 2ndWatch had a coherent design foundation for their second-generation platform, the groundwork for a scalable system that could grow with the product.
Problem: 2ndWatch's next-generation SaaS suite lacked design standards, resulting in fragmented UI, misaligned components, and technical debt that made the product harder to build and harder to use.
Solution: Brought in as the design systems expert, I built the foundational design language from the ground up over eight months — an 8px baseline grid, spacing scale, WCAG AAA color palette, typography system, elevation and shadow model, interaction and animation standards, and a full component library covering navigation, forms, tables, cards, modals, search, and page layout. The result was a 23-page system specification built for developers to implement consistently across the enterprise product suite.
Outcome: 2ndWatch had a coherent design foundation for their second-generation platform, the groundwork for a scalable system that could grow with the product.
Other brands I've worked with
- RoastHouse CoffeeManaged secure infrastructure for an ExpressionEngine platform.
- 2ndWatchCreated a design system to support the second-generation product line.
- UnconferenceApplied a brand refresh for the unconference consulting group.
- City of SpokaneDesigned the web interface for the municipal website and associated departments.
- Brooklyn Deli & LoungeDelivered a fully responsive digital restaurant storefront.
- Eastern Washington UniversityIntegrated user-centered design methods to inform the redesign of the ewu.edu university website.
- Strands off BroadwayDeveloped a branded web experience for a local salon client.
- Department of Veterans AffairsMatured the developer experience across multiple platforms.
- Linda Kozora PTDesigned a digital presence featuring services and appointments.
- UxiliaryProvided web consultant services.
- IRSDesigned a 0→1 digital workflow replacing a high-touch manual process.
- Centers for Medicare & Medicaid ServicesUX Design lead on the CMS design system team.
What I do
As a design leader with over 20+ years of experience, I lead and deliver user-centered, accessible products within complex government and enterprise systems, driving 0→1 product builds, modernizing legacy platforms, and integrating AI into production environments.
I operate at the intersection of design and engineering, partnering with cross-functional teams to scale and specialize in maturing design systems.