Carnegie Mellon MHCI
Reconnecting with my roots
May 2017 - September 2019
In Q2 2016 was approached in by Carnegie Mellon University to apply to be the Executive Director of the Master of Human-Computer Interaction program. Ten years ago, I graduated from this program and it changed the trajectory of my career and thus my life. The program gave me an insatiable appetite for new challenges, a crazy drive for excellence, and a total lack of fear of technology. I knew I would regret it if I didn’t at least throw my hat in the ring.
At the time, I was helping to lead a rapidly growing team at a rapidly growing financial giant that really needed people with our ideas about products, people, and technology. This wasn’t the logical career next step, but it was one that I found invigorating and terrifying. I knew I wasn’t an academic and never wanted to become one. But, this fact made me uniquely suited for the role at the helm of this exclusively practice and industry focused program. The other thing I knew is that despite working across big companies and small, in-house and consulting, I was driven to find new challenges in new environments. I wanted to reconnect with the place that helped to shape my thinking about this work and collaborate in an environment focused on the state of the art rather than the art of the possible.
What I found when I got there was a huge opportunity space to bring industry methodology into foundational thinking. I had the great pleasure of retooling our curriculum to incorporate current technology development methods, the impact of data on design, and rapid insights gathering. At the same time I was influenced by my collaborators and developed coursework focused on ethical technology design and mixed methods research. All that said, the most rewarding part of my work has been collaborating with and learning from my students. Each year we recruit an incredible cohort of brilliant, driven, hopeful young professionals and their energy and commitment is truly inspiring. I worked to put together career coaching and placement services and our first year compensation is up 15% since these programs went into place.
Through diligent effort and grit, I’m immensely proud of what my team and I accomplished. MHCI is attracting even more competitive applicants, increased their selectivity by nearly 10%, and graduates are receiving the highest first role salaries in the history of the program.