Hi! I'm Heather.
I’m a User Experience Researcher focused on helping teams make confident decisions in complex product spaces. I currently work at Northwestern Mutual, where I partner cross‑functionally with Product, Design, Engineering, and Business to inform, shape, evaluate, and monitor digital experiences for financial professionals.
My work blends qualitative depth and quantitative rigor, with an emphasis on clarity, prioritization, and measurement. I’m particularly drawn to problem spaces where uncertainty is high and decisions have meaningful downstream impact.
Before moving into industry research, I earned a PhD in Cognitive Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. My academic training was highly interdisciplinary: I studied human learning, memory, and attention using behavioral and neuroimaging methods, participated in the Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition, and completed design‑focused coursework through Carnegie Mellon University’s Human‑Computer Interaction Institute.
This background continues to inform how I approach product research, especially when it comes to study design, evidence evaluation, and knowing when existing knowledge is sufficient to move forward. While my portfolio focuses on applied product work, a selection of my academic research is available for those interested in the foundations that shape my approach.
Outside of work, my life largely revolves around food: I enjoy cooking, baking, and trying out new restaurants.