The HCDE Alumni Leadership Board (ALB) fosters an alumni and student community, builds career connections, and provides industry skill-sharing outside the academic curriculum.
Sign up for ALB Email Newsletters
Alumni Leadership Board Give Campaign
The HCDE Alumni Leadership Board is committed to forwarding the success of HCDE students, the department, and fellow alums. To that end, we have committed to donating ALB funds raised towards two critical HCDE department aid programs: The HCDE Emergency Student Support Fund and HCDE Undergraduate Scholarships.
ALB Blog on Medium
Featuring continuing education and UX career content, authored by HCDE alumni, for alumni.
ALB Continuing Education Events
Recordings of continuing education events hosted by the Alumni Leadership Board.
Alumni Leadership Board Officers
PRESIDENT
MS, 2020 Rachael is the current Civic Designer for the City of Seattle's Innovation and Performance team. Prior to her transition into design, Rachael spent over six years managing design and engineering work at companies such as Twitter, and Seattle-based design consultancy, Artefact. Her decision to transition into design was prompted by her desire to not simply facilitate the development of human-centered technologies but to be on the frontlines, researching and codesigning them. Her focus now as Civic Designer is to create impact in local government by partnering with city departments, using human-centered design, to create experiences that afford equitable interactions for all Seattle residents. When she’s not thinking of the next design challenge to tackle, Rachael is most likely out hiking with her dog, Sully. |
Rachael Cicero
VICE PRESIDENT
BS, 2011 Dynamic, collaborative business leader with 12+ years of product marketing experience and a passion for improving the quality of other people’s lives—by shaping products that deliver on user needs and communicating the unique value propositions of those products through the power of effective marketing. I have a diverse background with extensive working experience in development, design, copywriting, CRM administration, campaign management, and marketing operations. I also possess a formal education in human-centered design and engineering (HCDE), marketing, leadership, communications, and product management. My passion for learning has fueled both my professional and personal growth over the years. I’m happy to share insights, advice, feedback, and guidance to help you reach your goals. |
TREASURER
MS, 2019 I was born and raised in Atlanta, Ga, and have been living in Seattle for about 4 years. One of the ways I like to give back to my community is through supporting education. Looking at my life, becoming educated getting my bachelors and masters degrees has changed my life more than I could have ever imagined and I want to help others achieve the same. I also focus these efforts on underrepresented groups because too often we don't believe that this is a viable path. |
Alumni Leadership Board Members |
|
Managing Editor at CMD A 1999 M.S. graduate of the UW HCDE (previously Technical Communication) program, Anne has dedicated her career to bridging the technical and non-technical in order to deliver value for end users and businesses. She has worked on digital products with companies across a broad range of industries in roles spanning product management, user experience and information design. She also holds a B.A. in Chemistry from Occidental College, a certification in Pragmatic Marketing (PMC-III) and is a Certified Scrum Product Owner (CSPO). |
|
Marketing & Communications Manager, University of Washington Brooke Fisher is a Communications & Marketing Manager for UW’s Civil & Environmental Engineering Department. She studied journalism at UW and later earned her master’s degree in HCDE (back when it was called Technical Communications). Brooke now has 15+ years of experience in the communications field, working as a journalist, editor and communications manager. She enjoys international travel (her favorite country is France) and hopes to soon get her first children’s book published. |
|
UX Designer at Microsoft Stefania is a contract UX Designer at Microsoft as part of the Identity team focused on designing experiences in Azure Active Directory. Her work involves facilitating how people access resources at work and ensuring their information is protected. She is passionate about solving complex enterprise problems and delivering seamless experiences. Before moving into the field of user experience and completing her master's in HCDE, Stefania worked as a visual designer for a few years and studied Fine Art, German and International Business. Outside of work, she enjoys making art, going on long bike rides, spending time at the climbing gym and connecting with new people! |
|
Researcher & Designer & Co-founder Dr. Alexis Hope is a designer and researcher based at the MIT Media Lab, where she designs various technologies, experiences, events, and artworks. She serves as the Creative Director of TEN FWD — a consultancy that helps clients design playful, experimental objects and social experiences. Along with Nodira Khoussainova and Justin Trobec, she is also a co-founder of focused (www.focused.space), a startup that helps remote workers reach their personal and professional goals by providing structure, accountability, and community. |
|
Managing Director, Head of UX Research at Charles Schwab I currently have the privilege and honor of leading a group of 40+ UX Researchers at the Financial Services firm, Charles Schwab. My background is diverse. I worked as a broadcast journalist and in marketing before transitioning to UX Research in 2014. I'm good at collecting data and making sense of it to help stakeholders with product direction. The messier and complex the UX Research question, the better. I also love building processes to support teams. |
|
MS & PhD, 2012 I focus on the intersection of human data and design. I’ve built identity and compliance products across the economy. I currently make sure consumers rights are respected while ensuring product and engineering teams can innovate. |
|
MS, 2018 Tessa currently works at Workday in San Francisco as a product manager on Financial products. Previously she worked at PricewaterhouseCoopers in User Experience Design. She graduated from MS HCDE at the University of Washington in 2018. In her free time, she enjoys photography and being in the nature. |
|
BS, 2012; MS, 2014 Julius has been a part of the UX industry for the past 10+ years, working at various companies and groups in the Seattle area such as T-Mobile, the University of Washington, and Microsoft. With recent events making healthcare more relevant than ever, he has shifted focus as a Senior UX Designer at 98point6 where he helps discover new and innovative ways to make primary care affordable and accessible to all. As an advocate for helping the UX community grow, Julius often mentors new or aspiring designers/researchers through hackathons and UX-related organizations. In his spare time, Julius enjoys exercising, going out for drives, learning new skills, and playing video games. |
|
MS, 2020 As a UX Designer, Jenny has worked at both small start-ups and larger companies such as Amazon and Expedia. Jenny's prior design experiences ranges from redesigning a business corporate travel platform for Expedia/AMEX GBT as well as multiple reporting and web-based analytics tools for Amazon. Before transitioning into UX Design, her previous background included sales, marketing, data collection, and research. Jenny became a UX designer with the desire to collaborate with others in a creative space, working together to uncover users' motivations to guide design decisions. She uses her past experience in research to inform many of her decisions. Outside of work, Jenny enjoys pottery, thrifting, concerts, and spending time with her two dogs. |
|
MS, 2021 Savannah currently works in Microsoft's Developer Division where she leads efforts to build cloud native tools and end-to-end experiences for developers using JavaScript/TypeScript, Python, .NET, Java and Go. Prior to making the switch to product management, she worked as an engineer for several years at variety of consultancies and startups. Since then, Savannah has worked at Google and in other roles at Microsoft focused on the same mission - to make it easier for developers to do their jobs. Savannah is passionate about user-centered design and leveraging qualitative research as a means of understanding and empathizing with developer audiences. When she's not at her computer, you can find Savannah talking about the cooking elaborate meals on weekday nights, gardening or hanging out with her two cats - Nori and Miso. |
|
MS, 2020 Lynn is currently a UX Researcher at SiteCrafting, a website digital agency based in Tacoma, WA. Prior to being a researcher, she worked in the higher education field assisting with new student orientation and alumni programs. In the context of her work, Lynn cares about helping clients meet their goals by uncovering problems, presenting recommendations for improvement based on research, and provide the best experience for users as possible. Outside of work, you will find Lynn chasing after her toddler, building Legos, watering the houseplants, and enjoying an oat milk latte. |
|
UCD Certificate, 1999 Susan helps people use technology to solve problems, be more efficient, and chase their dreams. This may look like an artfully crafted UI string, engaging web content, or an intuitive site experience. She also leads projects, drives content initiatives, and builds teams. She’s currently managing a team of content professionals at GoDaddy, and she previously spent 15 years at Microsoft in the Office and Engineering Excellence groups. In her free time, Susan enjoys seeing new places, reading, hiking, and riding her bike that goes nowhere. |
|
MS, 2014 After finishing a bachelor's in Computer Science, I attended HCDE to have a deeper focus in Interaction Design and User Research. I've spent most of my career focused on understanding and designing solutions for Industrial workplaces. My interests have been focused in how we can translate work into complex systems and how the use of data has been changing the nature of work. |
|
MS, 2021 Mojin graduated from MS HCDE in 2021. She is currently working at Microsoft, designing delightful experiences for the Edge browser. She is also a singer, a natural history enthusiast, and a world citizen at heart. |
|
MS, 2020 Shiqi (Ivy) loves to switch hats between UX design and product strategy. While she's a UX designer at work, she also plays many roles in her life. |
Mike Arcari
D'Marcus Butler
Anne de Ridder
Brooke Fisher
Stefania (Stefanie) Gueorguieva
Alexis Hope
Sabrina Kang
Steve Lappenbusch 
Taoxi (Tessa) Li
Julius Magsino
Jenny Nguyen
Savannah Ostrowski 
Lynn Pham
Susan Stainsby
Darwin Witt
Mojin Yu
Shiqi (Ivy) ZhangHCDE thanks those serving on our current alumni board, as well as those who have completed terms of service on the board. Find prior ALB members here.