About Me
Building technology that works for more people.
My path into product development wasn't traditional, and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Long before I worked in technology, I grew up watching my dad build custom adaptive gaming controllers for veterans with disabilities through the nonprofit Warfighter Engaged. This was years before commercial adaptive gaming hardware existed. Every controller was handcrafted to meet the unique abilities, goals, and preferences of a single individual.
Watching those veterans regain the ability to play with friends and family showed me that gaming was far more than entertainment. It was connection. Community. Independence. A way to participate in something that many people take for granted.
Just as fascinating to me was the process itself. I watched everyday technology be hacked, modified, and reimagined to fit the person instead of asking the person to adapt to the technology. That idea (that good design should meet people where they are) has shaped my career ever since.
Finding My Path
Those early experiences inspired me to pursue occupational therapy.
As an OT, I worked closely with people navigating injury, disability, and illness, helping them regain independence in everyday life. Technology was often central to those conversations. Whether someone wanted to reconnect with family through gaming, order groceries online, manage medications, return to work, or simply communicate more easily, access to technology had become essential to modern life.
At the same time, I continued volunteering with Warfighter Engaged, designing and adapting custom gaming solutions for veterans and collaborating directly with people with disabilities to understand what worked, and what didn't.
Those experiences taught me something that would ultimately change my career.
Too often, occupational therapists and caregivers were forced to improvise. We were adapting products with Velcro, 3D-printed parts, foam, switches, and whatever materials we could find because accessibility hadn't been considered when those products were designed.
I kept asking myself the same question:
What if these products were simply designed to be accessible from the beginning?
Bringing Occupational Therapy to Product Development
That question eventually led me to Microsoft.
Rather than adapting products after they reached people's hands, I wanted to help shape them before they were ever built.
I joined Microsoft as a contractor, bringing a perspective that was uncommon in product development: a clinical understanding of human function, disability, assistive technology, and the real-world barriers people encounter every day.
My goal wasn't simply to advocate for accessibility. It was to help product teams understand people more deeply so accessibility could become part of the design and development process from the very beginning.
After nearly two years as a contractor, I joined Microsoft full-time.
Over the next five years within Xbox, I grew from Program Manager II to Senior Product Manager, and ultimately to Gaming Accessibility Lead, partnering across engineering, design, research, and executive leadership to launch adaptive hardware, improve software experiences, build accessibility programs, and establish scalable systems that helped integrate accessibility throughout product development.
My Philosophy
I believe that the best products don't force people to adapt to technology, technology should adapt to the people who use it.
Throughout my career, I've seen accessibility create better experiences not only for people with disabilities, but for everyone. When accessibility is considered early, products become more intuitive, more flexible, and more resilient. It shifts accessibility from being a checklist at the end of development to a design principle that drives better decisions from the start.
That's the approach I bring to every project: understanding people first, then building technology that enables them to participate more fully in the world around them.
Beyond Work
Outside of work, you'll usually find me building something.
I enjoy designing custom adaptive solutions for the local community whose needs remain unmet, experimenting with 3D printing, creating stained glass art, playing video games (yes I did just start ANOTHER Stardew save), exploring the outdoors throughout the Pacific Northwest, and spending time with my 3 dogs (Sully, Sadie, and Maple). Whether I'm developing a new accessibility concept or tackling a hands-on maker project, I'm happiest when I'm solving problems and creating things that improve or add beauty to people's lives.
