March 7, 2019

2019 UX Careers Panel

Human Centered Design & Engineering students and alumni are invited to join the department for our fourth annual UX careers panel event. This event brings HCDE alumni and industry partners to campus to share career success stories and tips with current students. Food will be provided.

AGENDA

5:15 p.m.	Doors open—pizza is available before panel begins
5:30 – 6:30 p.m.	UX careers panel discussion, moderated by Rebecca Destello
6:30 – 7 p.m.	Attendee Q&A
7 – 7:30 p.m.	Networking

PANEL MODERATOR

Rebecca Destello
Research Manager at Facebook
MS HCDE, 2011
LinkedIn »

Rebecca Destello is a Research Manager at Facebook where she leads teams who work on special projects aimed to improve the quality of experiences in Facebook’s products. Since 2007, she’s led research for a wide variety of problem spaces, including healthcare, government, e-commerce, social media, and startups. Rebecca serves as an Affiliate Faculty member at the University of Washington’s Human Centered Design & Engineering (HCDE) department where she has been teaching graduate students in user-centered design, design thinking, research, usability testing, and web design since 2012. She received her Master’s Degree in HCDE in 2011. Prior to that, she received a BA in Interdisciplinary Visual Arts, with a focus on design, printmaking, and art history, also from the University of Washington.

PANELISTS

• Ona Anicello, UX Research Manager at Alaska Air
• Irene Barber, Design Director at BlinkUX
• Ignacio Contreras, UX Researcher at Facebook
• Omeed Chandra, Senior UX Designer at GoDaddy
• Puja Parakh, Manager of User Experience at Starbucks
• Telle Zeiler, Principal UX Researcher at Nordstrom

PANELISTS

Ona Anicello UX Research Manager at Alaska Air MS HCDE, 2013 LinkedIn » Ona Anicello has over 16 years of experience managing and conducting user research, teaching user-centered design, and organizing UX community events. Currently, she works at Alaska Airlines where she built their first ever UX research department and manages a team of researchers. Prior to Alaska Airlines, she worked for large tech companies specifically Facebook, Microsoft, and Amazon where she managed research teams and led product strategy and vision. She has an entrepreneurial mindset starting a UX Research business, Fifth Element Usability, and an international social networking non-profit, BEAN. She is active in the community by organizing UX events and conferences as President of UXPA Seattle and teaching graduate courses at the University of Washington. She is a UW alumn graduating with an MS in HCDE and BS in Psychology.

Irene Barber Design Director at BlinkUX LinkedIn »

Ignacio Contreras UX Researcher at Facebook MS HCDE, 2015 LinkedIn »At Facebook, Ignacio Contreras leads UX research for AR Platform, Marketplace Autos Vertical, and Ads teams to support design and engineering and inform the teams’ product strategy.

Omeed Chandra Senior UX Designer at GoDaddy MS HCDE, 2014 LinkedIn »After writing for two computer magazines and then working as an engineer at Microsoft, Omeed discovered that design was his true passion. He firmly believes that great UX can unlock technology’s potential and help people achieve more in their lives. Omeed has worked on Microsoft’s Publisher, Education, and OneNote teams (with a leading role in the 2017 redesign of OneNote), and currently works at GoDaddy designing experiences to help people pursue their small business dreams.

Puja Parakh Manager of User Experience at Starbucks MS HCDE, 2011 LinkedIn »After spending 4.5 years helping grow Avvo from a small growth stage startup to a 400+ person company, through acquisition by the parent company of WebMD, Puja Parakh joined Starbucks to lead and grow their User Experience organization, helping to deliver innovative human-centered solutions to one of the largest and most well-respected global companies in the world. As a graduate of the Master’s program in Human Centered Design & Engineering at UW, she has held product management and user experience roles in startups, agencies, non-profits, and research institutions. Nowadays, she enjoys sharing what this field has taught her with others and continue to mentor as part of Hexagon UX. When not UX’ing, she enjoys taking photos, and is a volunteer with Rain City Rock Camp for Girls, empowering young individuals to engage their creative potential through music.

Telle Zeiler Principal UX Researcher at Nordstrom MS HCDE, 2011 LinkedIn »Telle Zeiler is a Principal UX Researcher at Nordstrom. She provides UX research leadership and support for omni-channel programs that are creating experiences that cross both store and digital (mobile, app, web) channels. She is also a support lecturer in the HCDE masters program teaching Usability Testing (517). Previously she worked in the Nordstrom Innovation Lab using Design Thinking and Lean UX to come up with and test new and innovative business ideas with customers. She has a M.S. in Human Centered Design & Engineering from the University of Washington with a concentration in user-centered design.