Those closest to me call me “Mav,” short for Maverick.

By day, I work at Microsoft as a design researcher on their Research & Insight team, analyzing human behavior and conducting user research (#dreamjob). By night, I advocate for nurses on through lobbying efforts and, of course, blogging.

I’m a psychiatric nurse practitioner,

I started my career as a psychiatric nurse practitioner (PMHNP), graduating from Vanderbilt University and completing a doctorate in nursing practice (DNP). As a clinician, I worked on a consultation-liaison psychiatry team focusing on the treatment of psychosomatic conditions.

And a user researcher at Microsoft too.

With the passage of the Affordable Care Act and the explosion in healthcare technology startups, I began consulting. Today I sit on the medical advisory board for Health Innovation Northwest, a Seattle-based non-profit. It was through these experiences I discovered the field of user research and started working at Microsoft.