Work History
Head of Learning Products, Sharpen
April 2023 – Present
Served as head of product for all educational products and oversaw the development and launch of two curriculum products.
Set the vision for and currently leading the design, development, and launch of the company’s AI product.
Senior Product Manager, Curriculum Associates
December 2021 – April 2023
Product owner for three assessment products on a platform that serves 11 million users.
Successfully transitioned a new assessment product from its initial launch to full operation.
Director of Learning Experience Design and UX Design, Imagine Learning
July 2019 – December 2021
Served as the UX director for the student and family experience horizontals and managed two UX design teams.
Created the Learning Experience Design team and built it up to include Learning Experience Designers, UX Designers, a Game Designer, a Content Designer, and UX Researcher.
Performed user research using qualitative analyses to identify needed improvements for a critical benchmark assessment.
Consulted on multiple projects across the Weld North portfolio to provide insights on gamification, game-based learning, and other engagement strategies.
Lead the design of the student experience for an innovative new assessment, including the development of reusable item templates to be employed by assessment designers.
Learning Experience Designer, Imagine Learning
April 2018 – July 2019
Performed an extensive review of the company’s development process to identify pain points and bottlenecks on various teams. Used this data to produce a new development process that cut the production time of digital instructional lessons from a couple of months to less than a week.
Introduced standardized item-types and other user interface designs that helped reduce production time as well as improved the overall learning experience.
Consulted with a design team to help them reduce the video content needed for their project by two-thirds without significantly impacting the engagement or efficacy of the instruction. This change significantly reduced the cost of producing the suite of instructional activities.
Sr. Instructional Designer for global design, Imagine Learning
January 2018 – April 2018
Oversaw the design, development, and implementation of an internal curriculum to teach non-developers how to use a Visual Programming Finite State Machine (Playmaker) in the Unity 3D Game Engine.
Taught small workshops on various topics related to using Playmaker in Unity to non-developers.
Acted as a liaison between curriculum designers and developers to ensure project requirements were understood and successfully developed.
Instructional Designer, Imagine Learning
September 2015 – January 2018
Served as product owner for the student experience team.
Helped lead a team of over 30 people as we rebuilt our client application in record time.
Performed end-user research to identify weaknesses in the product’s student engagement.
Designed new engagement pieces, or redesign previous lessons, to increase student engagement.
Governing Board Member, Franklin Discovery Academy
April 2015 – October 2017 (unpaid)
Met regularly with the governing board to discuss school needs and approve solutions.
Severed as the IT committee co-chair as we sought to identify and implement the school’s IT needs.
Educational Research Intern (Gamification Research and Design), Imagine Learning
February 2015 – August 2015
Designed gamification elements to increase student engagement and experience in the Imagine Learning product.
Researched current product design, along with related gamification aspects, in order to improve the design.
Founding Board Member, Franklin Discovery Academy
January 2014 – April 2015 (unpaid)
Involved in designing the school’s macro-level curriculum plan to include elements of gamification, and opportunities for student choice and autonomy in learning.
Researched important issues regarding the philosophy of the school, and debated issues with other board members to arrive at policies and other decisions most likely to be beneficial to students.
Research Assistant, BYU Dept. of Instructional Psychology & Technology
August 2009 – April 2015
Analyzed both quantitative and qualitative data to identify ideal ways to improve instruction on collaborative innovation.
Researched the design, development, and use of open badges in undergraduate education.
Wrote articles for academic journals and gave conference presentations that showed the results of these studies and their effect on future instruction.
Research Assistant* (Instructional Designer), BYU Dept. of Teacher Education
February 2014 – October 2014
Helped design and develop training modules for secondary education majors on how to create common assessments and how to collaborate in a Professional Learning Community.
Successfully advocated for the training to use authentic experiences and performance-based assessment methods.
Instructor of Record, BYU Dept. of Instructional Psychology & Technology
August 2009 – December 2013
Taught undergraduate course on technology integration in secondary education. Taught face-to-face, online, and blended versions of the course.
Developed an online version of the course utilizing the Canvas LMS. This version was later adopted by other instructors of the course.
Designed the IPT EdTec open badge system to better support student learning and differentiation of instruction.
Served as the Administrator and Instructional Designer for IPT EdTec.
Co-taught three graduate-level face-to-face courses on Instructional Print Design, Creativity, and the Learning Infrastructure.
Research Assistant* (Video & Assessment Specialist), BYU Dept. of Instructional Psychology & Technology
May 2012 – August 2012
Designed and produced video clips to be used as simulations in an online performance assessment.
Helped develop and calibrate test items for the online performance assessment.
Research Assistant* (Instructional Designer), BYU McKay School of Education
August 2010 – May 2012
Designed and produced instructional videos to supplement teacher education on how to collaborate effectively in team meetings.
Learned how to effectively manage scope creep, meet client needs, and perform other project management tasks.
Instructional Designer, BYU-Hawaii Dept. of Online Curriculum
May 2010 – August 2010
Designed and developed undergraduate online courses for use by campus and distance students.
Incorporated knowledge of computer skills, multimedia tools, and principles of instructional design in course production.
*Most graduate student employment at BYU is labeled “research assistant” regardless of the nature of the tasks performed. For jobs in which research was not performed, a more accurate job title is provided in parenthesis.