Hey, I’m Michelle

I believe in the power of design to make positive impact, and I’m energized by rallying teams to solve complex human needs. Celebrated for driving collaboration in challenging and expansive environments as well as talent for leading in new, innovative, and ambiguous spaces. I excel in creative leadership roles, combining strategic vision, executive influence, and an inspirational, collaborative style to drive teams toward powerful results.

14+ years of design experience

Managed teams of 2–12 people

Directed design, research & content

Exceeded business goals up to 35%

Increased team satisfaction by 9 pts

Won UHC’s Mindset Award

Solutions impacted 50M+ people

Delivered for $1B+ portfolios

IDEO AI x Design Thinking attendee

My Approach

Collaborative

My leadership style is collaborative by default. I involve my team in decision-making and I’m known for my ability to lead others through effective cross-functional collaboration to solve complex design problems. I’ve also co-led a collaboration committee and spearheaded new initiatives that enhance broader connection, collaboration and creative excellence across large and complex design teams.

Empathetic

I lead with empathy for my team and those who I serve every day. My style allows me to effectively build high-trust teams who feel safe to openly collaborate and learn together. Having empathy for the humans we design products for is essential to making a positive difference in the lives of those we serve and also ensures the long-term business success of the products we build.

Inspirational

Being able to rally people to work together toward a common vision is crucial when building an engaged, high-performing team focused on continuously improving how we solve the right problems in the right ways. I’m a strong conceptual thinker and have been called a ‘hype woman,’ always trying to bring others along with me on the larger vision.

Effective

I break down silos and effectively bring together all creative disciplines from across different teams made up of globally diverse, remote talent at all stages of development. I’ve built up multiple new and early-stage teams, worked on 0 to 1 initiatives, and designed for every channel. The constant? I consistently lead solutions that outperform original targets, sometimes as much as 35%.

  • “Michelle, thank you for the absolute cohesion you have brought to the Conversation Design team at UHC. You have not only enabled the team's expansion but have been the central guiding force bringing us all together culturally and strategically. Your vision and support in advancing visibility of the team and helping us better organize and execute our engagements in the bot roadmap landscape not only makes us stronger as value drivers, but – equally importantly – has fostered a spirit of joy amongst us. THANK YOU!”

    —Principal Designer, direct report

  • “THANK YOU for all your efforts to improve collaboration across our design team. The weekly highlight of bios have been so incredibly amazing and fun way to get to know people on the team. Also LOVE your new idea of project highlights and particularly focusing on cross team collab projects. All of this has led to both transparency, visibility and engagement across the team. What a way to improve collaboration.”

    —Senior Director, Experience Design

  • “Thank you so much for giving your time and talents to the UX team for your team building activity at the Breaking Boundaries UX Conference. All participants in this session are going to learn so much about each other, the team, and even (hopefully) themselves! It is such an honor to have you as a leader on this team; it is truly a pleasure having you here.”

    — Vice President, Experience Design

  • “I love your feedback on my professional goals…Looking forward for all the wonderful opportunities this team has to offer. Feeling so positive! Thank you so much for all your support and guidance. You brightened my day today and last night. I'm so inspired and motivated by how you are so thoughtful and caring about your team.”

    Senior Designer, direct report

  • “Excellent workshop! Thank you so much for all of the effort you put into crafting and leading such a fun and thoughtful workshop for us and our partners. Your work and facilitation helped us uncover and clarify insights and set the tone for a creative collaboration going forward. I appreciate you so much and am excited to work on this team with you!”

    — Principal Designer

  • “I was so impressed by your presentation today, taking what feels like years of feedback and synthesizing it into an actionable plan to help improve the relationship between design, product, and engineering. Thank you for your hard work!!”

    — Vice President of Product

  • “Your collaboration is perfection. Thank you for bringing me into the design process so that I can share member insights while you’re designing. It’s been so helpful having a seat at the table and watching those designs evolve and being able to influence them along the way.”

    —Principal User Experience Researcher

Featured Work

  • Pioneering AI solutions led to increased trust and 50% engagement in just 3 weeks

    I built a cross-functional team and led the design of the first generative AI features for the #1 medical app in the Apple App Store, impacting millions of consumers.

  • Personalized onboarding redesign led to increased satisfaction and 47% paperless opt-ins

    I led a multi-disciplinary team that redesigned the onboarding flow for the United Healthcare mobile app and web portal.

  • Self-service health and wellness advocacy earned 6.1/7 SEQ usability score, rated as easy and delightful to use

    I designed Advocacy solutions for Optum’s $1.9B Population Health Solutions suite of products focused on health and wellness engagement for millions of people.

  • Mobile app redesign and new design system for e-commerce healthcare app leading to 4.7/5 app store rating

    I led visual design and created a new design system for the Optum Rx prescription medication mobile app redesign.

Awards & Recognitions

  • I was nominated and won the United Healthcare Consumer Product Mindset Award in 2024. This award is given to those who show a new approach to looking at things and doing things differently. The Mindset Award is given to those who not only have a positive attitude but also focuses on growth and development while staying inventive to do whatever it takes to get the job done.

  • I was nominated for the Make IT Happen Award in 2018. This award is given to those who make significant contributions in technology in Optum.

  • I won an ADDY award for packaging design in 2013 from the American Advertising Federation.

Volunteering

American Advertising Federation

  • Student portfolio reviews

  • Pro-bono graphic design services

GirlOnward, 501(c)(3) nonprofit

  • Pro-bono graphic design services