Jury Alumni

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  Donna Lichaw

  Independent Digital Product Strategist

  2016 Interaction Jury Member

  Donna Lichaw brings over 15 years of experience guiding startups, non-profits, and global brands in optimizing their digital products and services by providing them with a simplified way to drive user engagement through impactful storytelling. As a consultant, speaker, writer, and educator, she utilizes a ‘story first’ approach to help teams define their value proposition, transform their thinking, and better engage with their core customers.
  
  She began her career as a designer and user experience strategist for multiple startups and design agencies in New York and London, working with brands like Casio, Capitol Records, Sony Pictures, and Seamless. Prior to her career in technology, she refined her talent for storytelling and narrative development as an award-winning documentary filmmaker.
  
  Now recognized as a thought leader in storytelling and customer engagement strategies, she has presented as a keynote speaker at design and technology conferences in the US, Canada and Europe, and taught courses at New York University, Northwestern University, The School of Visual Arts, and Parsons the New School for Design. Her upcoming book – “The User’s Journey: Storymapping Products That People Love” is out now. You can find her on Twitter @dlichaw and on the web at www.donnalichaw.com.

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  Raquel Breternitz

  Design Leader and Strategist

  2022 Interaction Jury Captain

  Raquel Breternitz is an award-winning design leader + strategist with a resume spanning service with the USCIS and as Elizabeth Warren’s Design Director to private sector credits at the New York Times, Pivotal Labs, and IBM. She has also spoken at Lesbians Who Tech, PluralSightLIVE, Wonder Women in Tech, and O'Reilly Design.
  
  Raquel’s work and speaking topics are connected by a passion for accessibility and inclusion, research-driven design thinking, and a hunger for tackling complex and challenging problems. She believes in strong, empathetic leadership for empowered, creative design teams. Outside of her day job, she loves to write, illustrate, make comics, and take pictures of her cat.

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  Romello Goodman

  Computational Designer and Educator

  2022 Interaction Jury Member

  Romello is a Computational Designer located in Washington DC. He believes that computers can make us more creative and that tool building can be a labor of love. In the past, he’s worked with software in various industries from media to aerospace and politics. Currently, he works on the Polaris team at Shopify and teaches in the Graphic Design department at MICA.

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  Scott Lederer

  UX Designer

  2023 Interaction Jury Member

  Scott is someone who throws around words like design, product, and strategy, but ultimately just likes working with interesting colleagues on exciting software products for people who need them. In recent years, he has led design at Capitol AI, a startup aiming to modernize and simplify data storytelling, and Azavea, a geospatial software shop committed to civic, social, and environmental good. Some time ago, he designed & stewarded the local search experience on Google Maps for about 4 years. And threaded throughout his career are sundry adventures in design & strategy for startups known & unknown. He lives in Philadelphia and is desperate to tell fewer dad jokes.

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  Aric Cheston

  Assistant Vice President of Design, AT&T

  2020 Interaction Jury Member

  Aric Cheston is a product and service designer living and working in Austin Texas. He is currently the Assistant Vice President of Design at AT&T where he leads a multidisciplinary team focused on large scale transformational projects encompassing all aspects of the business. Previous to AT&T, Aric co-founded the experience design firm, Big Tomorrow, served as Executive Creative Director of Frog Design, and was a partner in the storied brand advertising and marketing firm Kirshenbaum Bond Partners. He has worked with clients across industries, most notably, BMW, HP, Disney, Comcast, and The University of Texas.
  
  Aric holds an MFA in Design and Technology from Parsons School of Design.

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  Leslie Dann

  Associate Partner, C&G Partners

  2018 Interaction Jury Member

  At the digital forefront for 25 years, Leslie started in information architecture at Nicholson NY, collaborating on award-winning CD-ROMs, museum kiosks, and early websites. Later, living in Madrid, she was a UX consultant for European technology giant Indra, on e-commerce and e-government projects.
  
  As a former Assistant Director of User Experience at digital agency MRY, Leslie developed experience strategies and designed numerous user-centered interfaces for large websites and mobile platforms. Clients included Mass General Hospital, National Grid, Penguin, Google, Nestlé, MasterCard, Moleskine, and Johnson & Johnson.
  
  Leslie is currently an Associate Partner at C&G Partners, leading experience design and media production for interactives, exhibits, and websites for museums, educational institutions, and non-profits. Her focus on user-centered design, human-interest stories, history, and culture motivate both her professions as a UX specialist and video producer, giving her the variety she loves in life. Leslie holds a bachelor's degree in graphic design, summa cum laude, from the University of Cincinnati.

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  Margaret Lee

  Leadership Coach, Design Dept.

  2023 Interaction Jury Captain

  Margaret Lee is a Leadership Coach helping Design and Product executives and practitioners to lead with authenticity and confidence. Prior to coaching with Design Dept., Margaret was a User Experience leader at Google, where she built and led teams in Chrome, Search, and Maps. She led Google Maps UX from its early days as a groundbreaking desktop experience, to an indispensable tool for navigation and local exploration. Margaret also served as Director of UX Community + Culture at Google, a program she founded to serve and empower the company’s global User Experience organization. Decades in the tech industry has shaped her current commitment: to create conditions for teams to flourish and individuals can uncover their unique potential and leadership style. Margaret speaks and writes about her personal journey as a leader, the importance of a healthy culture in the workplace, and our collective responsibility to advance diversity and inclusion in the workplace.

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  Peder Sandqvist

  Creative Technologist and Head of VR & AR, DigitasLBi

  2017 Interaction Jury Member

  Peder Sandqvist is Creative Technologist and Head of VR & AR at DigitasLBi Nordics.
  
  As the founder of the DigitasLBi VR Lab (www.dlbivrlab.com), he works together with a diverse team of experts in different areas of technology, visual- and immersive communication to challenge conventions, invent new ways to communicate and create value for both the agency’s clients and end users.
  
  Growing up, he spent those famous tens of thousands of hours drawing and building worlds with Lego. Finding out that the skill set he gained could be used to create some truly amazing 3D content he spent fifteen years as a 3D artist producing state of the art visual effects. As it turns out experience in 3D creation and visual communication is essential in the creation of quality virtual- and augmented reality content.
  
  The past four years he has been exploring and challenging the world of VR & AR, with a singular focus on creating spotless magic moments that have a lasting impact.
  
  His work includes the multi award winning VR experience for the global launch campaign for Volvo XC90, Husqvarna Limberjack on SteamVR and ‘The Loop’ for OnePlus.

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  Lyanne Dubon

  Creative Director, Etsy

  2021 Interaction Jury Member

  Lyanne Dubon-Aguilar is a designer and creative director specializing in brand identity at Etsy in Brooklyn, NY. At Etsy, she leads a team of designers in creating brand experiences that foster creativity, community, and Etsy's mission to Keep Commerce Human.
  
  Originally from Tegucigalpa, Honduras, Lyanne has worked across a range of disciplines for The Museum of Modern Art, Pentagram, and Local Projects. Lyanne holds a B.F.A. in Graphic Design from The School of Visual Arts where she taught as an adjunct faculty member from 2014-2020.

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  Nick de la Mare

  Managing Director, Head of Design for North America, Fjord

  2020 Interaction Jury Captain

  As a Managing Director and Head of Design for Fjord (a part of Accenture Interactive) in North America, Nick is responsible for leading the Region in the pursuit of paradigm-shifting, impact-driven digital and physical design that breaks new ground for clients and contributes to positive systemic change around the world.
  
  Prior to joining Fjord, Nick was Partner and co-founder of Big Tomorrow, an experience design agency focused in healthcare, education and entertainment, and an Executive Creative Director at the global innovation and design firm frog, where he led their flagship San Francisco studio.
  
  He received a Master's degree in Industrial Design from Rhode Island School of Design and a BFA in Graphic Design from Syracuse University.

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  Ruihai Youngblood

  Senior Product Designer, Flatiron Health

  2022 Interaction Jury Member

  Ruihai is a product designer who loves teaching organizations and individuals how to do user-centered design well. He has worked with organizations in healthcare, government, ecommerce, and esports to implement regular user research, accessibility practices, and lean UX. Ruihai trained the first product designers at Ford UK, the FAA, and the US Air Force. He's currently helping teams deliver cancer research data faster.
  
  Outside of work, Ruihai fosters cats, skates, translates video games, and collects vintage Carhartt.

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  Christina White

  Head of UX, Google Sheets, Google

  2021 Interaction Jury Member

  Christina is currently at Google, leading the UX design team for Sheets and Apps Script. Prior to Google, she built the UX team for brand and digital agency Gin Lane, where she launched digital-first startups like sweetgreen and Harry’s. She’s also led creative departments at digital agencies SapientNitro and Huge, specializing in retail, health & beauty, & consumer products. Christina holds a BS of Industrial Design from Georgia Institute of Technology, where she first established her belief in ergonomics in that delightful design is achieved when the product naturally fits into the environment, not the other way around. She lives in NYC with her husband and kids Geneveive, William, and Henry.

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  Ye-Jeong Kim

  Head of Gmail UX, Google

  2023 Interaction Jury Member

  Ye-Jeong Kim is a Korean-born, US-based principal designer and UX leader who has continuously navigated IC and management paths across her career. Currently, Ye is leading Gmail UX at Google. In her time at Google, Ye led teams and efforts building products in the areas of Search, Assistant, Android, Geo, Payments, Social, and Ads. As a founding member of Google Now, Google Assistant, and Search’s innovation and strategy UX team, Ye has extensive experience building assistive experiences and molding innovative technologies to help people in their everyday lives. Prior to Google, her focus was on information visualization and building tools for people to collaborate and make sense of data through shared visualization of information and understanding. Ye appreciates her name to be pronounced Yay!, pronounced with a ghost of joy!

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  Alex Wilcox Cheek

  Design Manager, Google

  2024 Interaction Jury Member

  Alex Wilcox Cheek is a New York-based designer. For more than ten years, he taught in the School of Design, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, and Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon. His courses blended design, architecture, technology, and the humanities, reecting his cross-disciplinary approach to his practice. In that time, he spun o a number of start-ups including Classroom Salon, Macromicro, and Skale. Alex has long been involved with the Interaction Design Association, co- founding the rst chapter in the Middle East, IxDA Doha, and later serving as local leader for New York City. Today, he leads a design team at Google.

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  Heather Luipold

  Creative Lead, Google Creative Lab

  2019 Interaction Jury Member

  Heather Luipold, is a Creative Lead in New York working at the Google Creative Lab -- a small group of designers, engineers, writers, filmmakers and thinkers who experiment on non-traditional product concepts and ways to help connect people with our products. Heather co-leads a team inside the Lab that focuses on product visioning and experimentation. She's also worked as an adjunct professor in the design department at the School of Visual Arts and the Masters Program at Cornell Tech. Prior to Google, Heather worked in a slew of agencies leading product work for clients like Gucci, American Express and Lexus.

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  Matt Jones

  Interaction Design Director, Google Creative Lab

  2015 Interaction Jury Member

  Matt Jones is an interaction design director at Google Creative Lab in New York. He has been designing digital products and services since 1995.Creative director for the launch of BBC News Online, he co-founded and designed Dopplr.com in 2007, a service for frequent travelers since bought by Nokia. Between 2003 and 2005, he worked at Nokia on areas as diverse as tangible and physical interfaces and the human experience of play.Between 2009 and 2012 he was a principal at BERG, a design and invention company in London that has had projects exhibited in MoMA and products featured in Financial Times, Fast Company, Wired and Marvel Comics.He studied architecture and wrote for ten years about interaction design here:http://www.magicalnihilism.com, and now teaches a design interactions course at the Royal College of Art.