UXPA Boston Conference 2024

Karen Anderson is an product and design leader known for her transformative impact on Fortune 500 enterprises and innovative startups. With a career spanning over two decades, Karen has built a reputation for driving design excellence and fostering collaborative, cross-functional teams.

Most recently serving as Assistant Vice President of UX Product Management at Servicelink, an FNF company, Karen oversaw the strategic direction and execution of enterprise platform design initiatives. She specializes in two-sided markets and smart innovations happening at the intersection of housing and buildin... Read more

I'm UX Designer at Vicor Corporation. Let's talk about information design, data visualization and how to be a unicorn? (Can you actually be one?)

Matt Belge is a Senior Product Designer at Imprivata. Matt has been part of the UX scene in Boston almost from the beginning; his first real UX position was at Sun Microsystems in 1992. At Sun he was fortunate enough to work with some of the Macintosh pioneers from Apple who left Apple to join Sun.

After Sun, Matt formed his own UX consulting business, Vision & Logic LLC, where he helped foster user centered design for many clients. After nearly 20 years running his own business, Matt decided to let someone else deal with the business development headaches and happily rejoined the FTE workforce... Read more

Dan Berlin is the Founder and Principal at Watch City Research (WCR), a user experience research consultancy based in Waltham, MA. After spending ten years leading and building the research team at Mad*Pow, Dan struck out on his own and started the consultancy. Since 2021, he has conducted usability studies, user interviews, tree studies, and other types of meaningful research for clients across myriad industries. Dan prides himself on providing actionable recommendations so clients never have a “now what?” moment after partnering together on research. He edited the O’Reilly Media book “97...

I have open space for 2 new clients looking for quarterly usability studies. You and I will first determine a baseline evaluation of your product's experience.  Then we will set objectives for how your team can improve the experience between quarters.  You'll be able to show your leadership that your efforts are improving the product each quarter with measurable, comparable UX outcomes.  

I'd also like to talk about hot yoga, Newfoundlands, teenagers, Neurodivergence in the workplace. 

Margot Bloomstein is an internationally acclaimed speaker, consultant, and one of the most prominent voices in the content strategy industry. She is the author of Trustworthy: How the Smartest Brands Beat Cynicism and Bridge the Trust Gap and the web industry mainstay Content Strategy at Work: Real-World Stories to Strengthen Every Interactive Project. As the principal of Appropriate, Inc., a Boston-based brand and content strategy consultancy, Margot has taught workshops, keynoted conferences, and advised marketing teams around the world for more than two decades. She developed the popular m

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Yes Yes Know Founder, Jen Bullard, has over 20 years of UX experience.  Jen’s industry experience includes high-tech, b2b, SaaS software startups in cyber security, data management, and fin-tech. She has a Master's in Human Computer Interaction from Rensselaer Polytechnic (RPI), combined with a fine arts degree from University at Buffalo. Jen lectures at Northeastern University and mentors for Techstars and RIBBA.

Megan is a Senior Experience Researcher at Mad*Pow in Boston, where she has worked across multiple verticals including finance, healthcare, and education to deliver user insights and provide strategic recommendations for her clients. Since her undergraduate years as a sociology major, Megan has become increasingly passionate about the importance of listening to diverse experiences when conducting research with users. Megan is a graduate of Bentley University's HFID program.

Shanae Chapman is the Founder of Nerdy Diva, a boutique, Black woman-owned business offering world-class research, design, tech training, and content strategy that organizations trust for growing and scaling into mature businesses with excellent user experience, strategic diversity and inclusion, and investment in growing their community locally and globally. She is an O’Reilly author, featured in the 1st edition of 97 Things Every UX Practitioner Should Know. She has over 10 years of design and research experience at various enterprise companies like IBM, Boeing, MathWorks, Akamai, Kronos... Read more

Tammy Coutts is a user experience professional who designs electronic health record (EHR) products at MEDITECH. Over her 30 year tenure at MEDITECH, she has seen shifts in the healthcare and EHR industry. The importance of usability, accessibility, and user research play a larger role in improving patient care and delivering efficient products for users.

Tammy holds a bachelor's degree from the University of Rhode Island, a user experience certificate from Bentley University and is a certified Visual Thinking Strategies (VTS) facilitator from the Hailey group. She also serves as the vice chair

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Ira F. Cummings is a user experience leader with over twenty years of experience. His current practice is focused on creating better experiences in healthcare, especially genomics and genetic testing. He has worked in-house and in an agency setting, partnering with stakeholders at Fortune 100 companies and small start-ups to create meaningful experiences. He is a lifelong New Englander, where he lives with his family, and is a lover of all things bicycle-related.

Stephen is an award winning designer, with almost 20 years experience designing for start-ups, scale-ups, government agencies and national organisations in his home country of Ireland. His background is a unique mix of creative, business and technical skills and includes graphic design, art direction, information architecture, systems analysis and design and software engineering. Since 2015 he's focussed on User Experience Design and joined Unum in 2021.

Working as the sole UX resource within Unum's Digital Incubator on projects involving AI & ML requires utilizing all of his skills to bridge t... Read more

Marissa is a behavioral researcher with over 12 years of experience designing, executing, and managing rigorous mixed-methods research projects to generate evidence-driven insights into improving human health, well-being, and experiences. She is currently an associate research scientist at Northeastern University, working on several longitudinal projects that aim to understand emotion regulation behavior in everyday life across the lifespan and the factors that contribute to healthy aging. She graduated from Boston College in 2013 with a bachelor’s degree in psychology and neuroscience and a... Read more

Matt DiGirolamo is a UX researcher, designer, teacher, and community leader in the Boston, Massachusetts, area. He is currently the manager of the User Experience Research Team at TextNow, where he is growing the craft. He received his BS in engineering psychology and biomedical engineering from Tufts University and his MS in information architecture and knowledge management, user experience design from Kent State University. Since 2018, Matt has taught various UX research and design courses at Lesley University and Northeastern University at the undergraduate and graduate levels. Matt also volunteered... Read more

UX for intranets, UX team management

I've been working in digital product design for over 20 years. I started as a web designer in 1998 in NYC, but I quickly expanded my knowledge of web development. I made a personal pivot and decided to stop focusing on how to build a product to focus on how to create the right product with a focus on the disciplines of UX and Product Design like User Research, Information Architecture, Content Strategy, Interaction Design, Visual Design, and Usability Testing.

Talk to me about UXR focus, careers, infrastructure, Dovetail, healthcare, agriculture, and real food.

Janelle has over 20 years of experience transforming organizations to align strategy and operations around a holistic, customer-centric approach. Currently, she is a Lecturer at Bentley University in the Human Factors in Information Design Program where she teaches the next generation of experience design professionals.

Prior to Bentley, Janelle was the Chief Insights Officer at UserTesting, where she advised some of the most innovative companies in the world on leveraging customer insights and understanding to make key decisions that impact the bottom line. Other work experiences include: a User Experience Consultant at NN/g, a CX Researcher at Forrester Research, and user experience roles on the agency side and in-house... Read more

I’m a results driven designer that sees the big picture and appreciates a role where my work can directly and positively impact revenue and growth. Whether it’s a mobile app, an in-person or online program, print or web publishing, it's clear that design matters. My philosophy is to create an iterative process that defines the problem and then building out measurable solutions that are cohesive to the brand and fitting for user requirements.

With a decade of experience in web development, I have hands-on experience in both building and guiding others to build accessible websites and applications at scale. I have helped create, adapt, and test a wide range of accessible web products in collaboration with developers, designers, and users with disabilities.

UXPA Mentor

Usability, Research, Data Analytics, Jazz, Little Walter

I am Vice President at Clear Point Consultants. Clear Point is a woman-owned, technology staffing and consulting firm with specialization in the UX/UI, User Research, Product Management, and Technical Writing/Content Development space. We find the best possible people to complement your existing teams and expand your capabilities. I live in S. NH with my wife, Angela, and two kids who will both be attending St. Anselm College next year (one as a junior and one as a freshman). We spend our free time boating, fishing, hiking, camping, and enjoying live music. I'm looking forward to connecting with... Read more

Erica Gunn is a data visualization designer at Medidata/Dassault Systemes, where she creates systems to connect pharmaceutical databases to client tasks in generalized and reusable ways. She received her MFA in information design from Northeastern University in 2017. In a previous life, Erica was a research scientist and college chemistry professor.

Especially interested in the intersection of Product, Design, and Engineering! But up for chatting about anything.

Amy is a strategist who believes outcomes focused, human-centered and participatory design methods can guide us to envision and enact transformational change. As the founder and CEO of Beneficent, she focuses her passion for whole health, financial wellbeing, social impact, and sustainability to help organizations to clarify their purpose, craft a bold vision, and transform their organization in the direction of that vision. Amy is a big believer in learning and the power of community and networks to drive change and so is dedicated to life-long learning, teaching, inspiring people through events... Read more

I am a user researcher and interaction designer most of the way though Bentley's HFID program.

Steven Jencso has been practicing UX design for over a decade and partnered with multinational organizations to solve problems at a global scale. He’s built teams, optimized workflows, and introduced human-centered design practices for software and hardware projects.

Kathi Kaiser is co-founder and partner at Centralis, a Chicago-based UX consultancy. She leads a top-notch team in creating great user experiences for global clients, start-ups, and cultural institutions. When Kathi’s not at the whiteboard or in the lab, she may be found observing users on boats, in museums, at train stations, and anywhere else where the digital and physical worlds collide. Kathi is a frequent speaker on topics in UX, and has served as an adjunct faculty member at the Illinois Institute of Technology’s Institute of Design.

Eric is an award winning, industry veteran with over 20 years of digital consulting experience for top brands across industries. He has deep credentials formulating business strategies that open up new lines of revenue, defining customer experiences that can be quantifiably measured, and designing elegant user interactions rooted in extensive research. 
​​Eric was a double major in studio art and business at Skidmore College. He started out as a graphic designer working for Sapient (now Publicis Sapient). In that role, he designed the very first online banking application, Baybank’s Homelink, which ultimately morphed into Bank of America's web property. He received his MBA, graduating Magna Cum Laude from the Olin Graduate School at Babson College where he focused on entrepreneurship and product development. He spent numerous years at Dentsu Isobar and Mobiquity, where his main emphasis was crafting innovative programs for major brands... Read more

I am Head of User Research at VMware, where I lead a team of UX researchers and help promote good research practices throughout the company. I am grateful to have held many positions focused on improving people's lives. For example, I was a UX Manager and Usability Engineer at NetApp, a Product Manager and User Experience Researcher at Pearson, an Engineering Psychologist at the Volpe National Transportation Systems Center, and a Solutions Architect and a Professional Services Consultant at Pegasystems. I have a wonderful husband and two children. We enjoy skiing, reading, biking, traveling, and... Read more

I've been part of the Boston UXPA scene for a long time. My mentor, Joe Dumas, encouraged me to attend a Greater Boston SIGCHI meeting in the late 80's, and I eventually became chairperson. My 5+ years as Director of the Bentley Design and Usability Center (now UXD Center) gave me the privilege of meeting and mentoring many of the folks leading Boston UXPA today and many speakers you'll see at this conference. Looking forward to it!

Elle Marcus is a UX Designer at InterSystems with 8 years of experience in problem-solving as a designer and engineer across the healthcare and technology sectors. Elle is passionate about tackling complex issues and strategizing large-scale projects. With a Master's in Design Innovation from MassArt, she leverages a deep understanding of design methodologies to transform abstract problems into actionable, user-centric solutions.

With over 7 years of experience researching how work and technology impact one another, I specialize in user experience research for DevOps. I take a cross-system, mixed method approach to streamline developer workflows and improve developer experience across the development lifecycle. 

In my current role, I lead research initiatives that drive both design and process for internal systems used by over 3500 developers at MathWorks. I collaborate closely with program management, process engineering, and release management to ensure that our developers are trained and equipped to deliver high qua... Read more

Before my layoff I worked as founding team Product Designer for a sales intelligence app. Ask me about content writing about UX and putting comedy into parallels of my job search. Seeking freelance, and full time opportunities in UX Product Design.

I am a UX Professional with a proven track record of many years in art direction. I am currently enrolled in Bentley University’s Master of Science in Human Factors in Information Design and will graduate in May 2025. I am looking to connect and network, as well as discuss UX opportunities.

Hi!  I am the Sr. Account Manager at Clear Point Consultants, a well-known and leading UX recruitment and staffing agency and a proud sponsor for the UXPA Boston conference this year.  If you are on the lookout for top UI/UX talent to join your team or you're a professional exploring your own career opportunities, let's chat! 

Peter McNally is a Senior UX Consultant at the User Experience Center. Pete has more than 20 years’ experience in usability, information architecture, accessibility, and software engineering. His current areas of interests include the intersection of user experience (UX) and customer experience (CX), universal design, and internet of things (IoT).



Regardless of the area or technology, Pete always focuses on the human at the end of the product, so they can have the most seamless and engaging experience. He has worked with users and designed digital experiences in the financial services, heal... Read more