Have you always wanted to work in a creative career?
Absolutely. As a little girl, I was more interested in crafting clothes for my dolls than playing with them. I loved drawing and anything that let me be creative.
How did you get started with design?
When I was in high school, I decided to go into graphic design over interior design (which is now an expensive hobby). In my first year of college, I flirted with animation, but then I learned studios kept cots for artists to sleep on so they could work even more. I was convinced then that graphic design was the profession for me.
Were you always on a path to your current career, or were there some twists and turns?
Life is a winding road (isn’t that a song lyric?). Mine has definitely turned and twisted. Early in my graphic design career at a national homebuilder, my boss kept throwing more and more responsibility at me, and before I knew it, I was managing multi-million dollar, multi-channel marketing campaigns. I managed marketing for several years, working with government/non-profit agencies and large food service corporations. That’s when I originally found ESD 112 in 2012, coming back to my roots as a graphic designer. I worked with the talented team for five years before being called in a completely different direction.
During my final two years at the ESD, I felt a pull toward yoga therapy and worked intensively to earn my certification while maintaining my role half-time. After completing my training, I left 112 and opened a yoga therapy business, where I had the privilege of working one-on-one with clients of all ages and abilities for five years, from late 2017 through the end of 2022. Of course, that stretch included the pandemic, which pushed me to reinvent my business and figure out how to make Zoom really work.
Around that same time, after 23 years in the Portland/Vancouver region, my husband and I decided to move north to Carnation, WA, just east of Seattle. I shifted focus again and spent two years as a regional marketing manager for the 28 cafes and busy catering department at Boeing, where it became clear that I never wanted to be a marketing manager. My heart has always been in graphic design—I love being creative. What I did gain from those experiences, both running my own business and working inside a large corporation, was a real strength in cross-functional collaboration. I’ve learned how to work with all kinds of personalities, even the challenging ones.
It truly feels like I’ve come full circle, and I’m excited to bring my experience from the past 10 years back to the ESD. Even better, our fearless and inspirational design team is still here, including Heidi, Melissa, and Laura. I’m so grateful to have returned “home” to this talented team of exceptional creatives.
Spouse, kids, pets?
My husband of nearly 30 years (!) and I have two fur babies: a sassy Torbie kitty-cat named Evie and a wildly sweet pitbull named Kibo, which means “hope” in Japanese. We mainly call her “piggers” because she’s a bit pig-like, snorting and rolling onto her back. They are my favorite at-home co-workers since I work remotely, and they pull me away from the computer when I get obsessively focused.
Where were you born, and why do you live where you live now?
I was born in the little beach town of San Clemente, right next to Camp Pendleton in CA. I moved to Tucson, AZ, where I met my husband at the U of A. When we graduated, we looked at a map and asked ourselves, where can we live in nature year-round without extreme heat or cold? We ended up here in the gorgeous PNW, and honestly, it feels like we landed exactly where we’re meant to be. We love it here.
What inspires you, and how do you unplug or act on that inspiration?
I love finding inspiration from other artists and in nature. Here in our small town of Carnation, we have a huge herd of elk, a 30+ mile nature trail, two rivers, and people are so nice it feels like Mayberry. We also have an intimate concert venue called “Miller’s,” and I find inspiration in the concert posters, many created by a local artist. One of my favorites is of a Flamenco dancer, twirling in her red dress. I still have it saved on my desktop.
We’re just a hop and a jump from the Cascades to the east and the Puget Sound to the west, and when we lived in Camas, I loved escaping to Cannon Beach for the natural beauty, ocean, and art galleries. These days, hiking with my hubby and pup is at the top of my list; Bret and I have been walking together since we met on the University of Arizona campus, so I guess you could say we’ve had a lot of practice. Playing and cuddling with my fur babies is also unbeatable, and we’ve carved out a little “zen den” for stretching and decompressing. It’s amazing how much can change when you take a moment just to breathe and how easy it is to forget to do it.
What kind of communications project do you most enjoy executing?
Is it weird to say that I love it all? Whether it’s starting with a blank page and designing a logo for a program, bond/levy project, or school district, or organizing information into a branded newsletter, I’m a happy designer. One of my favorite things about our work at the ESD is the variety; there is never a dull moment!
What is your favorite industry trend right now? Least favorite?
AI and AI. It’s been life-changing and seemed to burst onto the scene. It is affecting everything, but as a creative, it has been fascinating to be at the forefront of how to use it in design. As a team, we are learning from each other what prompts get AI to do what we want and how to fix its mistakes. It’s clear AI’s visual accuracy has a long way to go, and it doesn’t quite understand simple corrections, like turning an object right or left. Instead, it either starts the image over completely or keeps showing the same image and saying it’s fixed. sigh
Ultimately, AI is just another tool in our tool belt. While it’s a powerful one, the role of the creative professional will never be replaced. It can’t replicate the depth of understanding that experienced communications and design experts bring. It comes after years of learning the craft. We know what questions to ask and how to translate complex information into something clear, accessible, and useful.
What prompted you to come back to the ESD?
Since you’ve read this far, you know how much I love graphic design and this team. The timing was just short of miraculous. In fact, I had already begun working with the team on a temporary basis, helping relieve an insanely busy workload with an extra set of hands. I’ve never had this kind of job luck in my life, and I’ve been working since I was 15! I am still pinching myself, wondering if this is all a dream.
