Individually, we each bring years of diverse experience designing, evaluating and deploying products and services across a wide range of sectors. Collectively, we share a common philosophy that drives our proven approach as consultants. Learn about the experts advancing human-centered design to inspire organizational change.
Suzanne Boyd is Founder and CEO of Anthro-Tech, a human-centered design consultancy. With a focus on government agencies, nonprofits, and enterprises with a social impact mission, Suzanne and her team help organizations understand their customers and design products and services that are usable, accessible, and make a positive impact on people’s every-day lives.
As a trusted advisor, Suzanne has a proven track record of helping leaders to improve customer experiences and shift organizations towards customer-centric processes and cultures. She is an expert in institutionalizing human-centered design, cross-channel customer experience, and digital transformation.
Over the past 25 years, Suzanne and her team at Anthro-Tech have partnered with numerous organizations to transform how they engage their customers, including dozens of state, local, and federal government organizations, global foundations, and fortune 500 clients. Suzanne is dedicated to reshaping problem-solving approaches, ensuring technology and innovation serve the greater good. Creating inclusive, accessible, and empowering products and services inspires her.
In addition to her entrepreneurial role, Suzanne is an Assistant Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington in the Human-Centered Design & Engineering Master’s Program. Since 2001, she has shared her insights and passion teaching the next generation of innovators and designers.
Outside of work, Suzanne is a huge fan of family travel adventures, Dutch cheese, and listening to her favorite artist “the BOSS” - Bruce Springsteen.
Leading our smart and inspiring team at Anthro-Tech. We share a passion for creating user-experiences that make the world a better place.
Parents, World Travels, Family
Classic, patient, tenacious
The Boss - Bruce Springsteen
Give and you will receive
Wherever my husband and 3 kids are
Family, coffee and cheese
That I'll never stop learning
Futuristic, self-assurance, responsibility, relator, activator
Kerkrade, The Netherlands
International Spy
Tori brings a passion for balancing creative design with user needs and expectations to her role as User Experience Practice Manager at Anthro-Tech.
Tori received her Bachelor’s Degrees in Anthropology and Journalism and Mass Communications from The University of Iowa and holds a Master’s Degree in Digital Anthropology from University College London. Her focus in Anthropology led her to a career in UX that started with a UK company called The Big Sofa Project. Tori spent a year interviewing participants on a big blow-up sofa across the UK for a variety of projects with clients ranging from city councils and public utilities to Volkswagen, BP and the London Olympics. Tori returned to the US to work as a Games User Researcher for Big Fish Games. At Big Fish, Tori worked with a small research team while the company transitioned from primarily PC games to mobile games, developing research methods and establishing best practices for mobile game design and testing.
When Tori isn't applying anthropology to design and user research at Anthro-Tech, she might be enjoying hot yoga, painting, kayaking, or finding ways to be creative while spending time with friends and family. That, or she's probably snuggling with her geriatric cat, Sugar, during a Netflix marathon.
Right before I moved to London for graduate school I was describing my ideal career to a relative from New Zealand. He listened as I described wanting to understand how people experience the world to help make design changes to anything from a paper form or a website to the physical layout of a room. He happened to be a User Experience Designer and let me know that my dream job existed in the form of User Experience Design and Research. It was revolutionary for me to learn that what I hoped to do with a Masters Degree in Digital Anthropology was in fact an actual job!
Saul Bass is a design hero of mine.
Vincent van Gogh, Pablo Picasso, and Salvador Dalí... But if I'm honest, I fall in love with new artists every day.
Sevilla, Spain, particularly wandering around the gardens of the Alcázar in the sun when the orange trees blossom.
Art, Water, and Thai food (with lots of veggies). I might regret not listing sunscreen if this is a desert island scenario...
A problem solver and systems thinker, Taylor is a user experience designer who creates exceptional digital experiences anchored in user research and needs. Taylor is not only a designer, but a Human-Centered Design (HCD) coach, guiding our clients through making data-driven and human-centered products, services, and experiences.
A California native, Taylor studied graphic design at the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising (FIDM), web development at San Francisco City College, user experience at General Assembly and has worked in digital experience consulting since 2013 at various agencies in California and Washington.
Taylor enjoys learning how things work, inside and outside of work. Some of her latest hobbies include pottery, permaculture, and herbalism.
I came into UX from the creative side. I took a photography class in high school where I learned Photoshop. I immediately started a side-hustle creating posters and flyers for various events and bands. After being a print designer, I got hungry for more meaningful design work and transitioned to User-Centered Design as I learned how to make websites.
I’m a firm believer that good design is invisible, yet enjoyment is not. I work to create effortless product experiences that have meaning as they facilitate the user doing what they came to do.
I want to make everyone’s life easier. I want there to be less unnecessary friction in the world so that everyone can focus on what is meaningful and needs their attention.
Being deep in nature where I can hear birds chirping, animals & leaves rustling, and water flowing.
Product jingle writer or medicine woman.
Known for being a systems thinker that’s always spotting relevant patterns, Chris brings her problem-solving skills to Anthro-Tech as the Director of Content Strategy. Her ability to see the full picture while also understanding the minute details allows her to structure content and architect systems that compel the customer to act. She has over 10 years of experience in UX design and content strategy working with a variety of clients in the nonprofit and government sectors, as well as pharmaceuticals and fintech. She is passionate about using content to connect with people and help them understand complex ideas. She is also a strong advocate for cross-discipline collaboration in the workplace.
Believing that the best experiences go beyond content on a page to a meaningful, highly effective conversation, Chris loves the challenge of balancing the needs and motivations of customers with an organization’s strategic goals. She is responsible for leading the strategic direction of our client’s products and services by tackling customer and industry research, information architecture, customer journey, content modeling, content creation workflow, wireframing, and the narratives for data visualizations.
Outside of work, Chris is passionate about traveling and sampling the local cuisine. As an avid sewer, she opened Pineapple Shack Crafts to spread the joy of using quality handmade goods in the kitchen. She also enjoys hiking, camping, and volunteering with the Colorado Drupal Association.
During my last quarter of graduate school, I took an information architecture class and fell in love with the practice! It was a practical application of organizing information where I could make an impact in the world at large.
Throughout my career, I’ve had the incredible opportunity to work on a variety of projects and initiatives. But my true passion is helping consultancies grow. In a past job, I worked with my expert content strategists on creating and selling the practice of content design — taking the principles applied to content strategy for websites into the product world. Together, we created the framework and sales materials used to convince prospective clients to take a content-first approach when creating not only their information-heavy websites, but also their task-based applications.
Spain, along the coast, but also by a large city. Barcelona and Malaga are great because you can explore amazing artwork, eat delicious seafood, walk the city streets at night, and soak up the sun on the beaches. You might even get in an afternoon siesta.
Home is where my people are. The geographic coordinates don’t matter. <3
Physicist
Beth is passionate about breaking down complexity to make digital services accessible, concise, understandable, and polished. As the Director of Digital Accessibility at Anthro-Tech, she works to make it easier for people to share, connect, and get the things they need. She achieves this by creating UX and accessibility roadmaps, reviewing website and app accessibility, supporting inclusive usability studies, annotating designs for accessibility, and supporting good UX and accessibility throughout the product lifecycle.
Outside of work Beth is a parent, cat herder (both literally and figuratively), and general admirer of bikes, food, visual arts and crafts, parks, naps, and all things small and fiddly.
I was first introduced to UX as a web designer, where part of my role was supporting user testing. In each step of my career journey that followed - including during a tangent into Urban Planning - my internal monologue included "Who uses this? What do they want? How do we find out? How can we get there?" Holding on to those questions brought me back to UX and digital accessibility.
Making it easier for people to connect with services.
I'm a mediator. I enjoy listening, drawing out people's underlying interests, and helping to find creative solutions.
Yayoi Kusama, William Ketridge, Theaster Gates, Brian Jungen, and George Rodriguez.
Community Mediator or Urban Planner.
Aesha is a seasoned user experience researcher with a background in project management. Aesha received her Bachelor of Science Degree in Telecommunications Engineering from Visvesvaraya Technological University in Bangalore, India. Her love for problem-solving led her to build a career in User-Centered Design (UCD) at Cybersurf, India where she was a Project Manager leading several high-profile projects for government, nonprofit, corporate and academia.
Aesha is focused on delivering meaningful user experiences by combining both analytical and creative thinking. She specializes in business vision and strategy, process optimization, user research, and project management. Her love for owning every part of a typical project led her to attain a Masters in Management Information Systems from the University of Illinois at Chicago. Aesha returned to UX to continue conducting meaningful work in making user experience simple and intuitive. She is passionate about working with people and organizations to help make the complex, simple – and the simple, compelling. Her education in engineering and management information systems provides an analytical balance to her creative and observant approach to user research and project management.
Outside of work, Aesha is often found creating culinary magic in the kitchen. She loves doting on her houseplants and giving out plant care advice. She can be found exploring all the parks in the city with her Australian Shepherd, Baloo.
Making animal figures with bread dough.
Leading the redesign of 33 websites for all districts in Gujarat, India. Our goal: improve how citizens interact with government.
Meeting new people and traveling to new places.
Knowing I made somebody's life simpler.
Snuggling with my Aussie, Baloo.
Krissy is a creative problem solver passionate about community-led social impact. After completing her undergraduate degree in Global Studies, she joined the Peace Corps as a Health Education Volunteer in Tanzania. This was her initial introduction to a human-centered approach to problem solving. After completing her service, Krissy received her graduate degree in public policy with a focus on conflict/conflict resolution.
For several years, Krissy worked in the international development and public health sphere as a project manager. Seeing the potential for technology to accelerate social and economic development, she began studying UX. After working as a UX Designer for several federal contractors, she's found the both of best worlds as a UX Project Manager with Anthro-Tech. Her work focuses on connecting people and optimizing processes to deliver social impact.
Outside of work, Krissy enjoys drinking iced lattes, reading fantasy books, soaking up the sun, spotting wildlife, and traveling with her growing family!
Folding origami cranes with my baachan (grandma).
Take the cow! (Say yes!)
Petite Anse, Seychelles
Coffee and wine (separately), baby giggles, and puppy snuggles.
Donut + coffee shop owner/chef/barista
Nelly is an experienced communications strategist with a knack for digital engagement. She has led or supported the launch and maintenance of nearly a dozen digital products, including informational and educational websites, intranets, and highly integrated web and mobile applications. She loves to untangle knots, learn on-the-fly and pull apart the components of complicated situations.
Nelly holds Masters degrees in both Health Administration and Public Health Policy, as well as a graduate certificate in User-Centered Design (UCD) from the University of Washington. She is a scrum-certified product owner practiced in agile development.
Fueling Nelly's role as Organizational Change Manager at Anthro-Tech is her passion for coaching teams in UCD tools and process. Specifically, she is motivated to get organizations with a social-impact mission to harness the power of user personas and relentlessly enhance the customer experience.
Aside from helping clients on their UCD journey, Nelly also takes joy in practicing yoga, cultivating her palate (and recipes) for fermented food, and any activity that includes her daughter, husband, and pup at a beach.
Working at the forefront of healthcare reform in Washington. As one of the founding staff members at the Washington Health Benefit Exchange, my work in policy shifted to digital design as we evolved Washington Healthplanfinder to be a decision support tool to empower users to understand their coverage options and feel confident in their plan choice.
Nobel prize winner and behavioral economist, Richard Thaler.
Maybe you have to know the darkness before you can appreciate the light.
Big Sur, California.
Olympia's annual Procession of the Species Parade.
Camy is a usability and Human-Centered Design (HCD) expert with an education in computer programming and business. She received her Bachelor of Science degree from Virginia Tech in Management Science & Information Technology, where she learned to imagine and build decision support systems. She has since added over 13 years of experience helping clients make better decisions when developing their customers’ digital and physical experiences.
As Director of Human-Centered Design at Anthro-Tech, Camy takes a detailed, creative, and friendly approach. As a researcher and designer of user experiences, she loves making the complex seem simple and the weird feel like common sense. She believes in the power of UCD to settle chaos and make business decision-making easier, faster, and more effective.
Camy enjoys being outside as much as possible, spending time with her dogs, and making music. She is also a Certified Yoga Teacher. Though not actively teaching, she appreciates opportunities to share yoga stretches and wisdom with her friends and co-workers.
While working in a WA State office to help minority and women owned businesses, I was asked to serve on a state-wide initiative to create an online business portal, to make it easier to do business in Washington State. It was from that exposure that my passion for continuous process improvements merged with my abilities to relate to and communicate with others, and a UX'er was born.
I am laid back and flexible. I like to keep things light and funny. I always do my best.
My dogs bring so much happiness to my life, I can't imagine living without a pet.
Musician, Architect, or Meteorologist.
Brianna is an experienced marketer, graphic designer, and project manager. Her passion is helping brands create a cohesive identity and conveying that across multiple platforms and mediums. As the Marketing Manager at Anthro-Tech, she is responsible for developing, implementing, and managing the overall marketing strategy through innovative solutions such as blogs, social media, networking events, and collateral.
Outside of work, Brianna enjoys spending time with family, spoiling her Maltese, Izzy, or watching comedy movies.
Traveling to new places.
La Jolla, California or Paris, France.
Quesadillas.
The Office.
A Spice Girl
As Director of Operations, Scott is committed to overseeing a well-run business. He’s passionate about Anthro-Tech’s purpose of building a great business that makes things better for people. He works at growing a solid team and culture. He handles finance, contracts, HR, IT, facilities, and compliance.
Scott is a humble behind-the-scenes guy who takes pride in playing a role in bootstrapping Anthro-Tech into a consistently profitable and growing business. He brings a long-term focus and believes he is charged as a steward of the business, its client relationships, and our smart and inspired team. Scott earned his MBA from Seattle University with an emphasis on Leadership Formation and a Bachelor’s degree in English from Western Washington University.
Outside of Anthro-Tech, Scott’s a grateful family man with three kids. They keep him humble. He loves reading, plotting travel adventures, and fixing up old houses.
Mountainside, New Jersey
Working musician, television writer, real estate genius.
Evolve our small giant of a company into an enduring and impactful firm loved by clients and team.
Ideation, Intellection, Developer, Deliberative, Empathy
I have a soft spot for independent and self-made stories like Ani DiFranco, Macklemore, Steve Martin.
As a User Experience Researcher, Claire seeks to understand people and translate research data into clear and constructive insights that empower teams and communities. Ever in awe of the complexity and creativity of humans, Claire especially enjoys generative research. She employs a variety of methods to enable thoughtful, practical, and delightful designs. She is passionate about community health and the intersection of sustainability and social impact.
Previously, Claire worked in mechanical engineering and product development. Her interest in understanding the people for whom she was designing led her to the field of Human-Centered Design research. She holds her Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering, with a focus in Design, from the University of Colorado, Boulder, and her Bachelor of Engineering from Vanderbilt University.
When she's not working, you can find Claire running and hiking the trails of Boulder with her tireless Australian Shepherd mix pup. She loves stirring up new ice cream recipes and getting her hands dirty in her vegetable garden.
When I was six years old, I discovered a manual typewriter in my grandparents’ house. I tapped a story out and illustrated my one-page “book” in crayon.
When I went to school for engineering, I discovered that the question "are we building the right thing?" was crucial before evaluating whether we were building something correctly. Investigating this question through early-stage research and interviewing users started me down the path to UX.
Sunshine, good company, a new trail to explore, and lots of salty and sweet snacks in my backpack.
My hometown, Nashville, in the springtime when everything is alive and green.
Care of Magical Creatures professor at Hogwarts.
As a User Experience Researcher, Mandy combines quantitative with qualitative research to form a mixed methodology, and holistic approach to help organizations provide an exceptional user experience. She excels at finding gaps and additional research opportunities to further business strategies. Mandy is passionate about conducting research that solves current problems, prevents future problems, and identifies how to make better design decisions for organizations’ products and services. Mandy has a bachelor's degree in Psychology from the University of Washington Tacoma. She is enjoys studying human behaviors, focusing especially on the "what" and "why's." With this, she successfully integrates psychology into a holistic user experience approach. Outside of work, you can find Mandy dancing, tending to her houseplants, playing a game on her Nintendo Switch, or creating something fun and artsy. She also enjoys hanging out with friends and family or huddling under the covers to watch a movie or show.
Childhood education and supporting BIPOC communities.
The Shins and Mac Miller.
“If you can be anything, be kind.”
Bundled up in Autumn and wandering around pumpkin patches.
A good concealer, eyeliner, and a strong cup of black coffee.
Christopher is a User Experience (UX) researcher with a background in human automation interaction and system integration. As a seasoned practitioner with over a decade of experience, he is an expert in Human-Centered Design research including user interviews, surveys, A/B experiments, and usability testing. Christopher enjoys taking a data-driven and goal-oriented approach towards understanding how users interact with products and services offered by all kinds of organizations. He likes to leverage user research to help challenge assumptions, mitigate pain points, and identify new opportunities.
His education in human factors engineering and the cognitive sciences (psychology, linguistics, and computer programming) supports his work with a solid foundation of human thought and behavior theory in areas such as attention, situation awareness, decision making, communication, and embodied cognition.
Outside of work, Christopher enjoys playing recreational league ice hockey, exploring off-leash dog open spaces, and dreaming of driving a motorcycle again.
My initial college career began in creative writing where I was curious about reaching readers better from ambiguous points of view and repertoires. Through my studies in psychology, language, and computers, as well as work in safety-related human operated vehicles and systems, I’ve always been interested in any gaps between the assumed and the “in the wild” nature of things.
I got to experience zero gravity as part of a NASA experiment.
Playing with my older brother from huge tote bins of Legos and learning only years later that Legos came with something called “instructions” you were “supposed” to follow.
Watching my dog run at breakneck speeds with a toy in his month and unfathomable intensity in his eyes.
Time-travelling travel writer.
Alexis is passionate about simplifying communication. From coaching content creators and editors, to building and sharing strategies with executive teams, Alexis will work with you to cut through the fluff. She enjoys using stories to get buy-in and support for content efforts. She pursued this interest with a Bachelors degree in Communication and Culture and a Masters of Business Administration, both from Clark University. She has also worked in marketing, building content programs, strategizing with clients about their digital presence, and managing marketing campaigns. Alexis gets a little too excited about the power of databases and the impact of accessible content.
Outside of the office, you can find Alexis walking her dog Bella or trying to find a new way to make coffee. So far, she’s tried aero-press, pour-over, drip, and espresso. She’s always open to suggestions for new and exciting ways to brew coffee, so don’t hesitate to reach out.
Arundhati Roy and E.B. White
The Talking Heads are geniuses.
A baseball game in September with my dad, where I can smell the grass on the field, but the night gets crisp as we near the 9th inning. Go Mariners!
My dog, Bella and burritos.
Gilmore Girls. I also devour the podcast, “Armchair Expert.”
Nikki is a passionate advocate for User-Centered Design, ensuring that it is considered from end-to-end on projects. She helps brands put intention behind the shapes, colors, and layouts they use. Her experience has been varied, working with clients across industries ranging from government and non-profits to Fortune 500 companies. Nikki has over 14 years of experience, a Bachelor of Science in Graphic Design and a Master of Fine Arts in Media Design.
Outside of work, Nikki and her husband enjoy getting off-the-grid with their rescue dog, Vince – getting as deep into nature as possible when they camp, hike, and rock climb as long and as late as the weather holds out. You can find Nikki cooking complicated meals for friends and family, reading, and doing yoga.
Minimalist – and gray. Very gray.
Anza-Borrego, the desert outside of San Diego. I love driving off-road, finding a quiet place to camp, and sleeping under a clear sky with a bed of stars above me. It's deathly quiet, except for the coyotes howling in the distance.
Dogs. Arlo. And Trader Joe's dark chocolate peanut butter cups.
I once completed a multi-pitch rock climb in El Potrero Chico, Mexico, 11 pitches long, over 1,100 feet high, with two people in a single day Also, I've been chased by a buffalo, and now have a fear of anything remotely shaped like one (aka, cows).
Hippie that follows the Grateful Dead and sells homemade soap out of her VW Bus named, Cherry.
Lisa is a User Experience Researcher who is passionate about social impact work and immersing herself into new worlds and experiences. Using a mix of quantitative and qualitative research, she uncovers customer insights, needs, and motivations to make our clients’ products and services more intuitive and enjoyable. With a cognitive science background, she brings an interdisciplinary approach and explores problems from multiple perspectives and scales.
Lisa has always been drawn to understanding people. Through her course work, she discovered that people’s lives can be improved by conducting user experience research and applying that to real life situations such as designing a website or the offering of a service. When you know what the customer wants, the solution becomes easier to design.
From her involvement in healthcare and tech, she learned that human-centered research can serve to benefit any industry, especially the social impact space. Now at Anthro-Tech, she is committed to ensuring that customers are heard in any government agency, nonprofit, and social impact enterprise – and that their designed solutions reflect that. Outside of work, you can find Lisa experimenting with baking recipes, going thrift shopping, zoning out to an album, or hanging out with her cat. She recently has been trying out journaling, and as a result, has become a bit of a paper scrap collector.
I was lucky to first be exposed through my major in college and try it out during my elective courses.
Urban equity and sustainability
Favorite show, probably Psych. I really like the Ologies podcast, and Hello from the Magic Tavern for something fiction.
Something mixing science and art, like art conservation or scientific illustration
Lacey is a User Experience Researcher with a background in social sciences. She has experience with a range of qualitative and quantitative methods, as well as giving training in Human-Centered Design. Although her experiences span sectors and continents, they all share a common thread — a commitment to improving products and services by understanding individuals’ experiences.
At Anthro-Tech, Lacey conducts and observes usability testing sessions, assists with user research activities, analyzes data, summarizes key findings, and supports client meetings. Her strong analytical and collaboration skills, and keen attention to detail make her an asset to our team and clients.
Prior to joining Anthro-Tech, Lacey led fieldwork in Mexico, Cambodia, Japan, and the U.S., using ethnography and sociological research methods. While working as a Program Coordinator for a non-profit organization in Japan, she acted as a project manager and developed, and led workshops in Human-Centered Design. Her work has been published by the Association for Computing Machinery’s 2022 Designing Interactive Systems Conference, as well as by Development Policy Review. She received her Bachelor of Arts Degree in Anthropology and Biology from Lewis & Clark College, where she was awarded departmental honors for her thesis on Classical Chinese Medicine.
Outside of work, Lacey enjoys exploring the Pacific Northwest, taking photographs of wildlife (from insects to moose), and searching for new vegetarian restaurants to try.
Dr. Genevieve Bell
Spontaneous weekend adventures with loved ones.
A great book tucked away in my bag.
Great design starts with asking the right questions and creating space for people to share openly.
Photojournalist or veterinarian.
In UX Research, Daniel plays a connection role between users and product teams. He believes that there is power in understanding the stories and experiences of users and using that information to create innovative and transformative experiences. With a background in social cognition research from Eastern Washington University and a training in Human-Computer Interaction (HCI) practices from Carnegie Mellon University, he is skilled at addressing ambiguous problem spaces and driving actionable plans in collaboration with design teams. Constantly trying to grapple with the complexity of humans, he is passionate about diving into messy data and using it to drive social-impact projects.
Before joining Anthro-Tech, Daniel conducted research in understanding how to motivate and empower grassroots organizations, understanding how social activists use TikTok, and participated in a communication project for astronauts going to Mars in the future.
At Anthro-Tech, Daniel works with clients to take their research questions into a tangible format: a research plan aimed at collecting actionable data and insights. He plays a key role in ensuring participants are treated fairly and with dignity. He also ensures that companies receive information that is useful to them while maintaining the richness of user experiences and challenges.
In his spare time, Daniel enjoys live music of all kinds, but in particular, EDM. Between concerts and a hobby of creating 3D and generative visuals, it is a scene of comfort and enjoyment for him. And, you can't mention hobbies in the Pacific Northwest without mentioning hiking! Ask him for his favorite 360-degree peaks within 90 minutes of Seattle, you won't regret it!
Precise, yet understanding.
Not using technology to actively harm others.
Pacific Northwest Forests (Hoh forest specifically).
A good oat milk latte from a local roastery.
Practice and empathy will get your farther in life than sheer determination.
Wendy is a versatile user experience (UX) researcher and strategist who is passionate about helping teams find simple, creative solutions that achieve better outcomes. Curious, patient, and collaborative, Wendy particularly enjoys introducing organizations to the art and science of good design through data-driven decision making and coaching those who are new to UX as they learn the ropes.
Wendy acquired a Bachelor’s Degrees in Geology and English from Amherst College. She also holds a Master’s Degree in Geology from the University of Colorado, where she researched climate change and became interested in the role research can play in affecting societal decision making. This interest led her into energy efficiency and renewable energy communications for the Department of Energy, where she spent over a decade leading digital projects and started a UX initiative. She went on to TecEd, where she did UX research for non-profit and for-profit organizations, and eventually returned to federal consulting where she spent almost seven years building a UX practice at the Department of Treasury’s Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau.
In Wendy’s spare time, you can find her putting her research skills to use planning trips to remote locations in the desert Southwest, practicing karate, mountain biking, collecting cool nature stuff (mainly rocks and shells) or spending time with family and friends.
Early in my career, I remember wondering if some content I’d written would be seen and understood. When I mentioned this to a colleague, she said, “Well, let’s see!” and proceeded to facilitate an informal UX test with some of our other coworkers right then and there. I was hooked and began avidly exploring what was then a fairly new field.
At a UX conference during this time, I saw Anthro-Tech present a compelling case study demonstrating the value of data-driven design. It impressed me so much that I made a pitch to bring them on board to assist me in kicking off a UX effort for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. We made the right choice. Over the next couple years, I worked alongside many talented Anthro-Tech researchers on a series of UX projects. Their unwavering commitment to “help others succeed” uniquely shaped that engagement in ways well beyond our expectations, and effectively launched my own UX career. That experience created such a bond that I eventually came to work for Anthro-Tech myself!
Seek out adventures. They aren’t always fun, but they often lead you to unexpected places - and they always make good stories.
Hands down, slickrock paradise in Moab, Utah. Since discovering it in graduate school, it has always been my “happy place.”
My best work is always done with teammates who challenge my ideas and approach things radically differently than I do. When there is trust and willingness to see our differences as strengths instead of as threats, we can leverage that diversity to create better products and services than I could ever come to on my own.
I have been to Antarctica. After I finished my Master’s degree, I spent five weeks cruising around the Ross Sea on an icebreaker, collecting algae samples and looking for new species of fish (and we found one!). I even got to go cross country skiing on the Ross Ice Shelf.
Family adventure travel writer or canyoneering guide.
Karryn is a talented User Experience (UX) Designer who is passionate about designing compelling user experiences that improve people’s everyday lives. Her skills span the gamut of UX design activities – from design personas and journey maps to wireframing and high-fidelity design systems.
Karryn’s industry experience ranges from User Research, UX design, and usability testing for start-up companies to Fortune 500 companies.
Outside of work, Karryn likes to travel around and explore the world – so far, she has been to more than 10 countries and counting! Karryn believes traveling connects her to the world which inspires her in many ways as a designer. When there's no travel plans, she also enjoys her normal weekends hiking with her boyfriend and their border collie.
Minimalist
Hiroyuki Imaishi
Milk tea, white rice, potatoes, cheese, and Asian food.
Cyberpunk: Edgerunners
Taiwan
Project Management Essentials Certified (PMEC), Management and Strategy Institute. Certification# 115637379
Mary Beth, or MB, is a mixed methods researcher with a background in design, business, and strategy. She is passionate about creating products and services that help improve the lives of others and make the world a more equitable place.
As a User Experience Researcher at Anthro-Tech, MB helps non-profits and government agencies improve their customer experiences through a variety of methods such as heuristic evaluations, user interviews, usability testing, and survey design. In addition to conducting research, MB facilitates workshops geared towards furthering clients’ knowledge of Human-Centered Design.
Prior to her role with Anthro-Tech, MB spent time in the tech industry managing usability benchmarking research and improving Voice of the Customer programs. Before pivoting to user research, she was a consultant for a branding and trend forecasting agency and held various internships as an industrial designer. There's even a small chance you may have sat on some custom furniture or used a bike lock designed by her!
When she's not discovering the needs of customers, MB spends her time putting her industrial design degree to work by building furniture or finishing projects around her home. She also loves to travel, read, and hang out with her very large cat (his name is Goose, you'll probably see him make an appearance on a video call).
I wrote a blog about it! “My wibbly-wobbly path to User Experience Research”
Henri Rousseau
Good pizza and a scary movie on a rainy night.
Ranch dressing. You can take the girl out of the Midwest, but you can't take the Midwest out of the girl.
I’ve been snorkeling three times, the first time in the Great Barrier Reef, second with wild dolphins near New Zealand, and third with reef sharks near Fiji.
Olive is an applied anthropologist and UX researcher working at the intersection of global health and technology. Whether in global health or tech, Olive uses her research skills to understand the needs and experiences of vulnerable groups and translates their insights into practical recommendations that improve policies, programs, and products.
Olive earned her PhD in Anthropology and Masters in Public Health (MPH) at Northwestern University in 2014. Her dissertation research explored how transgender people in Kampala, Uganda, balanced visibility, and risk in the context of Uganda’s 2008 Anti-Homosexuality Bill. Olive’s MPH thesis examined barriers to HIV prevention and treatment services for transgender Ugandans. One of her proudest accomplishments was in 2014-2015 when she carried out fieldwork with Oxfam’s response to the Ebola epidemic in West Africa sparking key changes in their community engagement strategies.
In 2016, Olive was awarded an ACLS Public Fellowship to conduct research and evaluation with the International Rescue Committee. At IRC, she collaborated with research and design partners to identify and find solutions to barriers that refugees face when resettling in the U.S.
In 2019, Olive pivoted to design anthropology in global tech, and has carried out research with companies like Google, Facebook, and Etsy.
At Anthro-Tech, Olive continues to craft her career from the things she loves: seeing new places, talking with people, and trying to make the world a better place through User-Centered Design.
When she’s not working, you might find Olive cruising around Seattle on her e-bike, playing in the park with her daughter, reading fiction, practicing the piano, or practicing French vocab on Duolingo.
I became an anthropologist because I’ve always had a drive to understand and connect with other people across differences. I chose to pursue applied work, because I wanted to solve real-world problems. I discovered user experience research via the EPIC conference and made it my goal to become a UX researcher in the social-impact sector!
My part in the response to the 2014-2015 Ebola outbreak in West Africa.
Improving international development through User-Centered Design.
Adventurous and always game!
Psychiatrist. Foreign service diplomat. Joining Suzanne’s international spy agency.
Jeff is a sociologist and user researcher passionate about utilizing technologies to improve people's health and care. He draws on qualitative and ethnographic methods to understand and incorporate people's lived experiences in user-centered research to improve technologies, systems, and organizations. At Anthro-Tech, Jeff is responsible for collecting and analyzing user input and feedback for our clients to ensure their products and services align with customer needs.
Jeff entered the UX industry through multiple ethnographic research projects within healthcare organizations. These projects exposed Jeff to the many ways clinicians, staff, and patients rely daily on technologies. This motivated him to engage in user research towards social impacts within the industry and expand that to new sectors.
Prior to joining Anthro-Tech, Jeff was a games user researcher at PlayStation where he drew on qualitative and quantitative methods to support game studios throughout the development process. He also worked as a qualitative health researcher at the Veteran's Health Administration examining user experiences and the multiple uses of the My HealtheVet patient portal and other e-health tools.
Jeff is currently finishing his PhD in Sociology at the University of California, San Francisco. His dissertation explores how video games may act as everyday spaces to explore relationships to mental health as players encounter video games that tell stories and contain content about mental health. Outside of work, Jeff, perhaps unsurprisingly, enjoys playing video games, hiking through redwood forests with his wife, binging TV on the couch with his two cats, and scuba diving.
Normalizing mental health and equitable access to mental healthcare
Northern Laos
Laughter, community, and Trader Joe’s Milk Chocolate Peanut Butter Cups
I went scuba diving between the North American and European continental plates in Iceland. The water was 2 degrees Fahrenheit above freezing!
Travel/tour guide, owner of a breakfast burrito food truck
Renee’s work at Anthro-Tech includes creating intuitive information architectures, planning, running, and analyzing tree tests and card sorts, and helping clients create and implement content style guides. She loves taking complex content riddled with jargon and turning it into something users can easily read, understand, and use.
Renee received Bachelor of Arts degrees in Communication and Writing Studies from The University of Washington Tacoma, and hopes to start working toward her Masters degree soon. Outside of work, Renee enjoys movies and reading (particularly science fiction and horror), gardening, crafts, eating French fries, and spending time with her three cats.. She and her husband Matt love all their Seattle sports teams and everything about living in the beautiful Pacific Northwest.
Decorating a tote bag for preschool with puffy paint.
Animal welfare and civil liberties.
A rainy evening in with a good book or movie, a soft blanket, a purring cat, and hot cup of Earl Grey.
Starfleet officer.
My bucket list includes visiting all our beautiful National Parks and Monuments.
With a background that includes the pharmaceutical, banking and consulting industries, and even an internship at a Fortune 500 company, Kelly’s experience is as varied as the roles she holds at Anthro-Tech. She brings a unique perspective to the team and a “never settle” attitude to the table. Kelly supports the Anthro-Tech team in numerous ways such as office management, bookkeeping, payroll, research, and the always willing guinea pig. Kelly holds a Masters of Business Administration with a Marketing Concentration from the University of Phoenix.
When she isn’t being the right, and sometimes left, hand of the A-T team, Kelly enjoys traveling, cooking and spending lots of quality time with kiddos – both human and fur.
Franklin Delano Roosevelt, Walt Disney, my parents.
Autism awareness.
My can-do spirit. I will try most anything once because life is short. And I believe if I try hard enough, there is nothing I can't accomplish.
Seeing my children explore the world around them and experiencing "new" (from their perspective) things right along with them.
Animated voice-over actor.
Naomi loves helping organizations create content that is more useful, meaningful, inclusive, and accessible. Whether she's working on a content strategy plan or sharing best practices, she takes a collaborative approach to connect the right people with the right knowledge and resources.
Naomi's been practicing content strategy well before she knew there was a name for it, working as a content and brand manager across startups, education, nonprofit, and technology organizations. She holds a Master of Communication in Digital Media from the University of Washington, where she learned how to combine user research methodologies with content governance.
Growing up in an international family and being an immigrant to the U.S., Naomi always knew she wanted to be part of social impact through language and storytelling. After spending years writing and editing communications for myriad global audiences, Naomi quickly learned the importance of using plain text and clear language to make a difference.
She is passionate about bringing diversity of people and backgrounds into every industry and is committed to continuously growing and learning to be a more inclusive communicator. In her free time, she enjoys exploring the many peaks and rocks in the Pacific Northwest and going on "urban hikes" in Seattle (with many stops at local bakeries along the way).
Kind and direct with a sense of humor.
“Gratitude unlocks the fullness of life.” – quote from an unknown source
Laying in a hammock by an alpine lake with my favorite people, books, and thoughts.
My cat, Zoe.
A Broadway actor (if only I had the talent/skill).
Sruti is a passionate advocate for equitable access to technology, with a particular focus on advocating for minority user groups in research. Her expertise lies in web accessibility and qualitative research, where she has successfully enhanced the usability and accessibility of websites, mobile apps, and medical devices. Through her firsthand experiences gathering insights from individuals with disabilities, Sruti's perspective on design and research has been permanently and positively transformed.
As a Digital Accessibility Specialist at Anthro-Tech, Sruti takes on the responsibility of ensuring product accessibility, process improvement, training facilitation, and influential decision-making for people with disabilities. She thrives in a collaborative, multidisciplinary environment and enjoys tackling challenging problems that stretch her knowledge boundaries.
During her personal time, Sruti indulges in various activities, including cooking, reading, engaging in crafts, staying updated with the news, and cherishing moments with her family.
I was about 5 or 6 years old when I used Tom and Jerry as a reference to make my own fishing rod with sticks and scraps of thread. I didn't catch any fish, but I was proud of myself!
Access to basic human rights for all - especially access to clean drinking water, education, and dignity.
My grandmother's backyard which is full of fruit trees and by the beautiful backwaters of Kerala.
I've been chased by a herd of buffaloes on the streets of my hometown.
Running a gourmet food truck or bartending.
Misty is a passionate advocate for organized content. Her work combines theory and practical solutions from user-centered design, information architecture, and content strategy to help build effective and engaging content. She takes a community-driven, collaborative approach to all phases of user experience and content design.
From metadata to Oxford Commas, her love of all things information started at the Information School at the University of Washington. After receiving her Master in Library and Information Science, she remains active at the iSchool as part-time lecturer in the Informatics program. She also volunteers with Content Strategy events around the U.S. and loves to learn about the latest research and best practices in the field.
When she isn't geeking out about information or content design, Misty is an avid traveler and fan of public transportation. Her favorite evening outing is to write country songs while riding the Amtrak Cascades.
Performing magic tricks for my parents friends and doing a much better job of making them laugh than astonishing them with sleight of hand. So, I switched to stand up comedy when I was 9.
Working in communications for a growing nonprofit field, I was lucky to learn about service design early in my career. It inspired me to go to graduate school and learn how to rock at working on the internet, librarian-style.
Using a content audit to reduce the amount frustrating experiences on the web for cancer patients.
Ginny Redish.
Lounge singer in an outer space bar.
Anusha is a designer and researcher who believes in designing experiences that have a positive social impact. With a background spanning non-profit, public, and private organizations, she brings an interdisciplinary approach to creative problem-solving as a Design Researcher for Anthro-Tech.
Previously, Anusha led research for and co-designed in various socially-driven projects. She received her bachelor’s degree in International Relations from Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
When she is not working, you can find her dabbling in a various creative projects including painting, writing, cooking, and designing spaces.
Drawing an animal in kindergarten that was successfully identified as a kangaroo.
Single-handedly assembling an Ikea bed.
Home.
Kathmandu, Nepal
Minister of Magic
Ada is a User Experience Researcher who is passionate about conducting research to improve key services, products, and processes for all. She found the field of user research through combining her love of stories, design, and analysis. Ada is skilled in identifying research questions, conducting user interviews, uncovering insights with affinity diagramming, and working with cross-functional teams. Previously, Ada worked at the intersections of public service, technology, and research. She was selected as a Civic Innovation Corp Fellow working to improve California services with design and technology. Ada has also co-led a National Science Foundation-funded initiative connecting academic researchers with governments to work on collaborative projects tackling community needs.
Recently, she has been reading and watching a lot of stories focused on identity formation and community-building. You can find her talking her friend's ears off about the incredible films/comics/books/theater/poetry she's recently seen. Since the dawn of time, she has been trying to start a band and learn the bass guitar.
My first exposure to the range of human experiences was when I moved from a small farming village to the Big Apple when I was young, and it blew my mind.
The communities that raised me.
Building a more just, equitable, and empathetic society.
Copious amounts of tea.
Running a café that is a bookstore, community-maker space, and detective agency.
