My professional path has taken me through a variety of roles, but I've found a common thread running through all of them: I enjoy helping people, solving problems, and finding ways to make things better. My background spans customer service, hospitality, leadership, training, communication, and creative work. These experiences have given me a broad set of skills and perspectives, and I've become especially drawn to opportunities where I can combine them to create something useful and lasting.
I approach my work with curiosity, empathy, and a willingness to figure things out. I enjoy understanding what people need, identifying the problem behind the problem, and finding a practical way forward. Whether I'm creating a visual, developing a training resource, organizing information, or helping someone work through a challenge, I want the end result to be useful—not simply something that looks or sounds good.
I'm also someone who enjoys taking on challenges outside of my immediate responsibilities. Throughout my career, I've volunteered for additional projects, taken on leadership opportunities, and looked for ways to support the people around me. Those experiences have reinforced how much I value work that can make a lasting difference, whether that's helping someone learn, making information easier to understand, or creating something that others can use long after the original task is finished.
My professional experience has largely been rooted in customer service, retail, restaurant, and hospitality roles. While those industries weren't always where I imagined my career would take me, they've taught me a great deal about communication, adaptability, problem solving, and working with all kinds of people. I've also had opportunities to take on leadership and training responsibilities, which showed me that I especially enjoy helping others succeed.
Over time, I found myself looking for ways to contribute beyond the immediate interaction. I enjoyed being the person who could help a coworker figure something out, improve a process, take on a project that needed to be done, or create a resource that made someone's job a little easier. Those opportunities gave me a different perspective on what it means to help people and made me increasingly interested in work where the impact could extend beyond a single conversation or transaction.
My interest in design started long before I thought of it as a career. In high school, I enjoyed experimenting with images and creating graphic compositions, often treating photos and pieces of visual material almost like a collage. I also had a small introduction to coding and remember enjoying the challenge of figuring out why something I had written wasn't working and how to make it work.
Those early interests eventually led me to pursue design and related studies. Earning my degrees was challenging, but I enjoyed the combination of creativity and problem solving. There was something satisfying about starting with an idea, working through the challenges, and gradually turning it into something that actually worked.
After graduating, though, I wasn't always confident that my work measured up to what I saw from other designers. At the same time, breaking into the industry without professional experience was difficult, and pursuing an internship wasn't realistic while supporting a family. I eventually returned to the customer service, restaurant, and hospitality roles I already knew.
The creative work never completely disappeared. Every so often, I'd have an opportunity to design something for work, take on a creative project, or help someone who knew about my background. Those experiences kept that part of me going, even when it wasn't the primary direction of my career.
Revisiting design through this portfolio has been a little unexpected. I started by looking back at older work and remembering the projects I had created years ago, but I found myself seeing that work differently than I remembered. Some of it was rough around the edges, but there were ideas, creative decisions, and problem-solving skills that I had forgotten I had developed.
At the same time, creating new work and rebuilding this portfolio has reminded me how much I enjoy the process itself. I enjoy taking an idea that isn't fully formed, figuring out what it needs, experimenting with different approaches, and gradually turning it into something that communicates clearly. It's been exciting to reconnect with that part of myself and realize that the foundation I built earlier is still there.
I know there is always more to learn, and that's something I see as an opportunity rather than a limitation. I'm interested in continuing to develop my creative and technical skills, learning from the people around me, and taking on projects that challenge me to grow. I'm excited to build on what I already know while continuing to discover what I can do.
I'm looking for opportunities where I can bring together creativity, communication, problem solving, and my experience working with people. I'm especially drawn to work where I can create something useful—whether that's a visual experience, a training resource, a clearer way to communicate information, or a solution to a problem that helps others do their work more effectively.
I'm continuing to grow as a designer and creative professional, and I'm excited to learn from the people around me, take on new challenges, and contribute wherever my skills can be useful. My path here hasn't been traditional, but I think the experiences I've had along the way have given me a perspective that I wouldn't have developed by following a single path. I'm ready to build on that foundation and see where it takes me.