How this looks in practice

A few examples of the work, both client engagements and AI research, with the question asked, the methods used, and what came of it.

AI Projects

I build to test ideas and sharpen my technical intuition against what production AI actually takes: reliability, evaluation, and sound judgment about where AI belongs.

Relation-ship Profiler

Personal research, early prototype

What does your relationship with your AI actually look like, and can a well-designed prompt reveal it?

  • Prompt-system design

  • Relational assessment framework

  • Model-behavior design

  • Evaluation rubrics

  • Bring-your-own-model packaging

The entire product is the prompt and the thinking behind it, which means the whole design challenge lives in the model's behavior: what to ask, how to read the answer, and what a good reading even is. It's the closest thing I've made to prototyping relational intelligence built into the model itself. Early, and evolving.

Clinician Intake Agent

Client build, in development

Can a non-technical practitioner get a reliable AI collaborator while keeping AI out of client relationships?

  • Intake process mapping

  • Custom agent trained on proprietary reports

  • Output reliability & eval

  • Structured input/output design

  • HITL review

  • Practitioner-only deployment

The design question that mattered most was where the AI belongs. Built for a licensed educational psychologist using BastionGPT for HIPAA compliance, it works only for her, drafting from her own reports and intake process, and never touches the families she serves, so the clinical relationship stays fully human. The engineering underneath is reliability: defining what a trustworthy draft looks like, then building the checks that let her actually rely on it. In build using ChatGPT API & synthetic cases.

Job Search Agent DIY Kit

Personal tool, in development

Can a job-search agent force better reasoning instead of just faster applications?

  • Agent architecture design

  • HITL eval design

  • Self-revising instruction loops

  • Fit/winnability scoring frameworks

  • UX writing for agent outputs

Built the evaluation agent that conflated dimensions of job post scoring. The second version asks for a human desirability rating on each role instead of inferring it, guiding users through the process. The result creates acceptance gates and model-assessed winnability alongside more emotional metrics like excitement, so the reasoning stays legible to the person using it. The current work is turning a tool that only I could run into one a stranger can pick up and trust.

Impact Dash-board

Personal research tool, live prototype

What does your AI use actually cost in energy, water, carbon, labor, and physical resources?

  • Token-level usage profiling

  • Environmental & social impact modeling

  • Behavioral-nudge testing

  • Interaction design

  • Rapid prototyping

Two major pivots on this one: lost the individual-framing approach after testing showed it didn't shift behavior; redesigned around population-level impact. See the live version. But the real finding was that people loved getting their AI usage profiled! A second version, built for that mirror, is in progress.

The research-design-test Loop

It all starts by working in a simple loop that is easier to do than you might imagine.

Innovation, modernization, AI adoption, employee experience, customer experience, and strategy are all outcomes of this shift rather than the primary goal.

Flowchart illustrating the process of information, meaning, and movement, with icons of a file folder with documents, a human head with a heart, and a paper airplane, labeled with explanations of organizations collecting data, people creating meaning, and meaning enabling movement.

Here are a few of my favorite examples of how this looks IRL. Each past project vignette includes the organization type, primary research question, a few key methods, and the outcome.

My Past Work

A clinician sits at a desk looking at papers.

Non-profit mental healthcare provider focusing on East Africa  

How do we deliver our clinical services in a scalable, client-centered way?

  • Interviews

  • Focus groups

  • Co-design

  • Guiding principles

  • Documentation & Reporting

  • Training

The engagement equipped the organization to build its own qualitative research team, positioning them for upcoming pilot and RCT work.

Two women from different generations look at each other.

Early-stage mental healthcare start-up in Minneapolis, MN

Is there a market for preventative mental healthcare and how can potential clients afford it?

  • Market assessment

  • Impact & cost modeling

  • Pilot & scaling models

  • Resource allocation

  • Go-to-market planning

  • Pitching & business development

Prototyping data and reports from the engagement opened talks for nationwide piloting with a pharmacy chain.

A family is together in nature.

Multinational consumer brand and their university partner

How do we support our employees in learning about sustainability and becoming active contributors?

  • Interviews

  • Surveys & descriptive statistics

  • Co-design

  • Guiding principles

  • Wireframing & mockups

  • Roadmaps

The online course for employees was redesigned, improving engagement and learning comprehension to increase completion rates by 66%.

A person writes on a white board.

Conservation non-profit with a focus on human-wildlife conflict in East Africa

How can we distribute a product we have found to be effective in improving conservation outcomes?

  • Interviews

  • Prototyping

  • Co-design

  • Pilot & scaling models

  • Impact & cost modeling

  • Go-to-market plan

They went from a product idea to a financially viable market-ready brand with a distribution strategy.

Where I like to work

I'm drawn to organizations working to understand and respond to the people they serve, and to teams that treat capacity-building as central. A few areas I care about most:

Minimalist black line art on white background, resembling a face with two eyes and a mouth.
Minimalist black line art on white background, resembling a face with two eyes and a mouth.

AI-native company

AI and product teams working on how a system maps, understands, and responds to the people using it — building relational intelligence into the model itself.

Minimalist black line drawing on a white background, with a small green circle at the top right corner.
Minimalist black line drawing on a white background, with a small green circle at the top right corner.

Advocacy organization in Northern California

Community advocacy and policy work — especially participatory action research (PAR) and other community-based methods that move toward policy change.

Simple line drawing of three abstract, curved and straight lines within a square grid.
Simple line drawing of three abstract, curved and straight lines within a square grid.

Food, restaurant, or nutrition company

I've spent over ten years working in restaurants and have a deep love for the industry. I'd love to bring my research and design skills to projects focused on food access, nutrition education, or the guest experience.

A black and white wall clock with minimalist design, rectangular shape, and simple hour and minute hands.
A black and white wall clock with minimalist design, rectangular shape, and simple hour and minute hands.

School or university

Teaching courses related to modern approaches to mixed-methods, relational research.