Strategic Researcher, Customer Experience & Consumer Insights
Enterprise UX research · Customer insights · Mixed-methods research
Helping organizations make better product, customer, and business decisions through research.
I've led research that reversed a firm-wide space decision at JPMorgan Chase, supported a global technology deployment decision involving an estimated $400 per workstation savings, and served as Lead Researcher for a UNICEF-sponsored education quality initiative with Mayan Indigenous communities in rural Mexico.
I come from social anthropology and have worked across enterprise financial services, international development, government, and academic research. I stay close to the work from research design through synthesis, storytelling, and decision support, so insights become action, not just findings.
Based in Columbus, Ohio. Interested in enterprise research, customer insights, and experience strategy work where research meaningfully shapes decisions.
Research Case Studies
A curated selection from 15+ years of research. Each study ends the same way: an organization made a different decision because of what the research showed.
Case Study 01 · JPMorgan Chase
Research changed the outcome before a firm-wide rollout happened.
A global financial institution planned to move thousands of contact center employees to bench seating. Six days of on-site observation and 20 in-depth interviews later, the plan changed.
Case Study 02 · JPMorgan Chase
Three global locations. One study. A deployment decision with organization-wide cost implications.
Employees were experiencing connectivity and screen issues with an existing docking station setup. Research across Manhattan, Glasgow, and Polaris validated a new solution, surfaced change management gaps, and directly informed the firm-wide adoption decision.
Case Study 03 · JPMorgan Chase
Every recommendation was implemented. Then the product team requested two additional studies.
The internal developer portal used by 40,000+ engineers had a search tool that engineers avoided. A moderated usability study with 10 participants produced five specific recommendations. All five were implemented.
Case Study 04 · JPMorgan Chase
The pilot data was strong. The onboarding gaps were the story.
Before a firm-wide rollout of wireless peripherals, a global financial institution needed evidence from real users. The study confirmed strong satisfaction scores and surfaced a change management gap embedded into the deployment plan before expansion.
International Fieldwork
Research conducted in rural Mexico on gender, participation, and organizational power. The methods and the questions inform how I approach enterprise and consumer research today.
Fieldwork Case 01 · Doctoral Fieldwork
The project had funding, training, and government backing. It still wasn't operating. The question was why.
A female ecotourism cooperative in rural Mexico had every resource a development program can provide and wasn't functioning. Doctoral ethnographic fieldwork surfaced the structural barriers the metrics hadn't captured.
Fieldwork Case 02 · Published Research
The project was profitable. Women were cleaning and cooking.
A financially successful ecotourism project in rural Mexico was held up as a model. Ethnographic research surfaced a different reality: women were confined to the lowest tiers while a small group of men controlled all decisions. Findings changed who held leadership roles.
About
I'm a mixed-methods researcher with a background in social anthropology and 15+ years of experience studying how people behave in the systems they work and live within.
My academic training is in social anthropology (BS and MS, Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán) and environmental and energy policy (PhD, Michigan Technological University). That training shapes how I work: less interested in what users prefer in the abstract, more interested in what is actually happening when real people navigate real organizations.
My career has moved through four contexts: fieldwork and applied research in rural Mexico, policy research for the Mexican Government, academic work at Michigan Tech, and seven years in enterprise environments, most recently as a Senior User Experience Researcher at JPMorgan Chase.
At JPMorgan Chase, I led research programs touching the daily work lives of tens of thousands of employees. Research reversed a firm-wide seating strategy. Research supported a global workstation deployment with an estimated $400-per-unit cost savings. Research changed how a product team builds.
Before JPMorgan Chase, I studied harder-to-measure participation problems: why women with access to resources don't participate, how power operates inside nominally successful organizations, and what it takes to build programs that work for the people they are meant to serve. That research was published in Rural Sociology in 2020.
I conduct research in English and Spanish, and have led fieldwork across the United States and Mexico. I'm based in Columbus, Ohio, and especially interested in research and strategy work where understanding people well changes organizational decisions.
Education
PhD
Environmental and Energy Policy
Michigan Technological University
MS & BS
Social Anthropology
Universidad Autónoma de Yucatán
Languages
English
Full professional proficiency
Spanish
Full professional proficiency
Sectors
Enterprise Financial Services
International Development
Government and Policy
Academic Research
Published
Rural Sociology, 2020
Gender and participation in community-based ecotourism
Research Philosophy
I start every engagement by finding the decision underneath the question. Most research briefs arrive as questions. But a question without a decision attached to it has no clear definition of useful. Finding the actual decision that is waiting on evidence — the one an organization will act on — is the first and often the hardest part of the work.
I stay close to the field while collaborating with researchers, designers, product partners, and stakeholders. I conduct sessions personally across every method: interviews, usability studies, ethnographic observation, focus groups. The moments that change the direction of an analysis rarely survive a handoff. The hesitation before an answer. The offhand comment that turns out, three sessions later, to be the entire point. Leading research well means protecting the nuance of the data while helping teams see what matters.
I analyze carefully and deliver quickly. Rigorous thematic coding, interpretive judgment, and AI tools for transcript synthesis work together rather than in tension. The goal is to get the right answer to decision-makers before the window closes. Not to choose between speed and credibility.
The measure of a study is not the report. It is whether the organization makes a better decision because of it. Every study I've led has had that as the success condition. The cases in this portfolio are the ones where it worked.
Professional Experience
2022 – 2024Columbus, OH
Senior User Experience Researcher
JPMorgan Chase
At JPMorgan Chase, I led research programs across the employee technology and workplace experience portfolio. My work touched the internal developer platform used by 40,000+ software engineers, workplace seating and technology programs affecting tens of thousands of employees, and enrollment systems for 144,000 NAMR employees.
I established research standards, facilitation practices, and scalable workflows within the Employee Experience Design organization, directed and mentored a team of researchers, and presented findings directly to senior leadership. I facilitated cross-functional journey mapping workshops with product, design, and operations partners. Recommendations from my research directly reversed or reshaped major firm-wide decisions, including a space planning reversal and a global technology deployment. I integrated AI tools into research workflows for faster synthesis and time from field to insight.
2019 – 2022Houghton, MI
Multicultural Student Success Coordinator & Educational Programs Specialist
Michigan Technological University
I designed and led institutional programs for diverse student populations, applying facilitation and research methods to questions of belonging, inclusion, and leadership development. I delivered program findings and recommendations to the University President and senior leadership. I served as a Designated School Official for the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, managing compliance and support for international students. I conceived and led major DEI programming, including MLK Legacy events and Antiracism Workshop series.
2012 – 2019Houghton, MI
Doctoral Researcher
Michigan Technological University
My doctoral research investigated gender, participation, and power in community-based ecotourism in rural Mexico. I conducted 72 in-depth interviews with government officials, NGO practitioners, and community members across multiple field sites. I designed all research protocols, conducted fieldwork in Spanish, and executed full-cycle qualitative analysis using NVivo. Research was published in Rural Sociology in 2020. The dynamics I documented in cooperative settings — invisible gatekeeping, structural participation barriers, the gap between what an organization appears to offer and what its members can actually access — continue to inform how I approach consumer and organizational research today.
2009 – 2011Mexico
Lead Researcher & Project Manager
United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF)
Served as Lead Researcher and Project Manager for a UNICEF-sponsored education quality initiative conducted through a local NGO implementing partner in rural Mexico. I designed and executed field research with Mayan Indigenous communities, developed an education quality assessment framework, and presented findings to UNICEF program staff and regional government stakeholders. Research contributed to education quality discussions and program development in the region.
Areas of Practice
Research and Inquiry
Analysis and Synthesis
Organizational Influence
Contact
I'm especially interested in conversations about customer experience, organizational systems, and research that helps teams make better decisions. Particularly inside complex environments where understanding people well changes outcomes.
On research environments
"The best research environments are the ones where evidence genuinely shapes decisions."