Hello!

I'm Heather, Engineer & User Researcher with over a decade of experience.

I'm currently working as an independent consultant building digital products for a range of organizations, and teaching Web Development at New York University (NYU). Alongside my consulting and teaching work, I am completing a masters in Cybersecurity from NYU, where I receive a full scholarship from the NY Cyber Fellowship. I can also be found writing about tech ethics, speaking, making art, and baking.

I started my career in 2006 in a niche group of Bay Area startups that practiced Extreme Programming & Lean User Research. In 2012, I moved into digital product consulting working as a lead engineer for Substantial. From 2014-2018 I co-founded and ran Citizen Code, a company focused on defining, building, and transforming digital products for solo-preneurs and fortune 500s alike. Citizen Code preferenced work that promoted environmental sustainability and gender equity. I'm experienced in leading teams through iterative product development processes, from being in the field running interviews to hands-on pair-programming in Java/Ruby/ObjC to facilitating client workshops.

My coding perspective is informed by an academic background in the History of Ideas & Poetic Computation. These studies have reinforced the importance of cultural, historical, and political contexts as I collaborate to build new technologies. I understand that the technology itself is but one factor in building something that gets used and is loved. It is at this intersection of human needs and technological possibility that I thrive most.