• The Atlas Project

  • The Echo Project

  • The Brightline Project

  • The Northgrid Project

Our Work

Getting Scientists Back in the Race

Life Sciences · Data Access & Trust

The problem: A major pharmaceutical company was falling behind in COVID-19 vaccine research — not for lack of data, but because their scientists couldn't find, trust, or share it. Research was scattered across disconnected systems, with no consistent way to search, compare, or request access to it.

What we did: I led a full research effort with the scientists and teams actually using the data — mapping out who needed what, when, and why. From there, we built a new, unified interface for tracking clinical research end-to-end, with clear permissions and privacy built in from the start, plus a plan for the team to keep improving it based on ongoing feedback.

The result: Scientists could finally search, cross-reference, and request data across specialties in one place — turning a data bottleneck into something that actually sped up the search for treatments.

Making Sense of the Numbers at Every Level

Global Enterprise · Executive Decision-Making

The problem: One of the world's largest consulting firms had built finance dashboards for stakeholders around the globe — but an executive, a regional manager, and an analyst all need to see completely different things in the same numbers, and the existing tools didn't account for that.

What we did: I interviewed stakeholders across every region to understand how each role actually uses financial data to make decisions, then worked with developers to build and test an interactive prototype. Along the way, we created a reusable design system so future dashboards could be built faster and more consistently, instead of starting from scratch each time.

The result: A validated, role-aware forecasting dashboard that became the model for the organization's broader data and analytics strategy — and a design system that's still paying off on every dashboard built after it.

Data Visuals Everyone Can Actually Use

Fortune 10 · Accessibility

The problem: A Fortune 10 company needed its data visualizations — charts, dashboards, reports — to meet rigorous accessibility standards used around the world. Data products are notoriously hard to make accessible, since they're both highly visual and cognitively demanding.

What we did: Working alongside an accessibility specialist, I ran assistive-technology and screen-reader testing on existing dashboards, then grounded new design standards in over 25 academic and government accessibility sources. The result was a complete component library and documentation covering not just technical requirements, but how to actually tell a clear story with data.

The result: A company-wide accessible design system, rolled out through hands-on training and office hours across teams — turning a compliance requirement into a practical, reusable design standard.

Seeing Around the Corner on Medical Supply Shortages

Pharma · Supply Chain Risk

The problem: A Fortune 10 pharmaceutical solutions company wanted to help its customers spot supply chain risk before it became a shortage — but the complexity of the problem, and the very different needs of human health, animal health, and internal teams, made a one-size-fits-all tool impossible.

What we did: I led the user experience and product roadmap alongside the company's innovation team, interviewing supply chain experts and running workshops to align on what the platform needed to do: react to emergencies, manage current inventory, and plan ahead. The result was a modular interface that could flex to each audience's needs.

The result: A tested, ready-to-scale product experience — plus a roadmap and change management plan the company used to bring it to market.

Letting People Ask Their Data a Question

Public Sector / Nonprofit · Conversational AI

The problem: A national organization's public-facing data platform — used by researchers, journalists, and community advocates to understand child and family well-being — was built around dropdowns and filters. People wanted to simply ask a question and get a clear, trustworthy answer.

What we did: I led a pilot to reimagine the platform as a conversational, AI-powered experience, in partnership with a technical delivery team. The work spanned five areas at once: understanding natural-language questions, helping people find the right data, building trust in AI-generated answers, protecting sensitive or small-population data from being misread, and keeping the organization's own data and governance teams in the loop at every step.

The result: A validated pilot and a clear roadmap for the next phase — with real advocates outside the organization already testing early prototypes, and the organization's own data team involved from day one instead of brought in at the end.

A Science App Teachers and Kids Both Love

Education · K–5

The problem: A global leader in K–5 science education had a digital learning app that looked and worked almost identically for teachers and students — even though the two groups needed completely different things from it.

What we did: I ran a heuristic evaluation and competitive analysis to identify what to fix first, then facilitated co-creation workshops with teachers, administrators, and parents to shape a future-state vision. We designed and tested two distinct experiences — one built for teacher productivity and standards alignment, one built for student curiosity and independence — validating both with real classroom users before release.

The result: A functional, tested prototype and a full product roadmap, with two audiences finally getting an experience actually built for them.

What the Data Don't Say About Your Own People

Internal Innovation · People & Culture

The problem: This one started as personal curiosity: how does anyone really know what a consultant is capable of, based only on the sparse tags and labels in an internal system? The gap between what the data showed and what people actually contributed was significant — and it was quietly limiting how people got staffed and recognized.

What we did: I interviewed and surveyed consultants across every level of the organization, then built interactive prototypes showing what a richer, more human picture of someone's experience could look like — skills, industries, artifacts, and the stories behind the work, not just a job title.

The result: What began as a side project became a company-wide initiative, sponsored by executive leadership, to rethink how the organization understands and staffs its own people — proof that the same data experience thinking that helps external users also transforms how an organization sees itself.

Community & Civic Impact Work

Making the Midterms Make Sense

Voter & Civic Engagement

The problem: Young voters — the group now larger than any other voting bloc — were turning out at the lowest rates of any age group, and often for a simple reason: they didn't feel like they understood the issues well enough to vote with confidence.

What we did: Working with a graphic design student, Courtney turned dense Quinnipiac University Poll data (plus Pew Research Center data) into a plain-language midterm election guide — over 75 visualizations covering the issues young voters said actually mattered to them, each paired with defined terms, a timeline of context, and how the U.S. compared globally. The project later became a live, interactive prototype, complete with user personas built from real survey data distinguishing "Engaged" from "Apolitical" young voters.

The result: Featured in AIGA's national Design for Democracy campaign, and became the cornerstone of Quinnipiac University's first-ever campus-wide Voter Engagement Initiative. Silver, Connecticut Art Directors Club 2019 Awards Show. Presented at the Merrimack Design Incubation Colloquium and the National Communication Association conference.

Naming the Gaps, City by City

Social Equity & Public Data Reporting

The problem: Connecticut's urban centers were facing serious, measurable disparities in employment, education, income, housing, and health — but the story wasn't reaching the residents, policymakers, and advocates who needed to see it clearly.

What we did: Courtney designed and laid out the State of Urban Connecticut report for the Urban League of Southern Connecticut, working alongside a team of 14 scholars and experts. The report combined hard statistics with focus groups from residents across seven Connecticut cities, translating both into a document built to be read and acted on — not just archived. A companion project, Fifth Wave, applied the same approach to 100 years of gender equality data, distilling nearly 70 data visualizations into a single accessible narrative.

The result: Bronze, Connecticut Art Directors Club 2019 Awards Show. Covered by the New Haven Register and Hartford Business Journal, which reported the study's findings on the state of urban Connecticut directly to the public.

Turning Hunger Into a Community Conversation

Food Insecurity & Community Outreach

The problem: One in seven Hamden, Connecticut residents experiences hunger — but less than half of local residents even knew where to find the food resources available to them, and the issue was largely invisible to neighbors who weren't affected.

What we did: For the Hamden Food Security Task Force, Courtney designed Facts + Faces, a public report making the scope of local food insecurity clear and actionable for citizens and policymakers alike. In a companion grant-funded initiative, she went beyond the page entirely — designing billboards and bus shelter posters linked to a real-time, two-way texting service connecting residents directly to nearby food resources, bilingual survey cards, and a "listening booth" installed in the town library where residents could anonymously share their own stories.

The result: The Facts + Faces report was unveiled at a public event attended by the Hamden mayor and U.S. Representative Rosa DeLauro. The broader initiative was covered in Quinnipiac Magazine and presented at the 2020 AIGA National Conference.