I assist high school students with art and design portfolio development for scholarship and college admission applications. I also have over a decade of experience mentoring college students how to put together portfolios, resumes, and cover letters for internships and employment in today’s competitive job market. I am an approachable and enthusiastic educator who gets the most of students by leveraging the strengths in their verbal, visual, and written communication skills.

I taught industrial design at the University of Notre Dame for 6 years before becoming the Founding Director of the Richmond Institute for Design + Innovation at Western Michigan University. My graduates have worked at Disney, Whirlpool, Radio Flyer, Apple, Vera Bradley, Southwest Airlines, Amazon, Bark Box, Bell Flight, Stryker, Hasbro, Ford, GM, Stellantis, Melissa & Doug, Wolf & Shepherd, Newell, etc.

I have a BFA in Industrial Design from the University of Notre Dame and a MFA from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. My professional design experience is extensive, including corporate, consultant, freelance, entrepreneurial, and academic positions. I have won numerous design and teaching awards, including the 2005 IDSA Merit Award, third place in the 2005 International Housewares Association Student Design Competition, Honoree in the 2009 Design Defined awards, Best in Category at the 2010 Housewares Design Awards, third place in the JCB Project 120 Design Competition, full-ride graduate Petullo Fellowship, Graduate Scholar Award from the Design Principles and Practices Conference, UIUC Teaching Excellence Award, and UIUC List of Teachers Rated as Excellent by Their Students.

My students have won national and international design awards. I can teach all of the technical skills you would expect a young designer to have, including design thinking, analog and digital sketching, prototyping, user-centered research, storytelling, writing resumes and cover letters, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, SolidWorks and Keyshot.