2024 EPIC Fellows
The EPIC Fellowship is an 8-month program of training, coaching, and mentorship for a cohort of 8 participants. In 2024 the focus is equity-centered leadership. Acceptance to the program is competitive (approx. 5%) and we are privileged to learn with and from these talented, emerging leaders!
User Experience Researcher Yahoo
Senior Journey Design Researcher Sun Life
User Researcher Global Fishing Watch
UX Strategist
CIBC
Senior Service Designer
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Associate Product Manager
PATH Living Labs
I’m just your average dancing-while-eating, Jamerican (Jamaican American) UX Researcher and strategy-forward creative thinker hardwired to solve problems. I’m also a Fulbright Taiwan fellow, blackcomputeHER fellow, and author. Our family restaurant was the center of my childhood and constantly reinforced the complexities of my identities: first generation college student, first generation American and neither fully American nor Jamaican. My upbringing sparked a curiosity of cultures, languages, and psychology that led me to complete an International Relations and Asian Studies double major from Rollins College in three years. Graduating early wasn’t my *plan*, just the fruits of my strategy to minimize debt.
As a researcher, my practice leads with the empathy to hold space for others’ truths and a genuine curiosity to drive human-centered solutions that enhance experiences. My superpower is wielding courageous approaches and challenging normative perspectives to turn mountains into ant hills – a complex labyrinth of connected concepts presented as a surmountable hurdle.
Half of my heart lives in Taiwan, where I fell in love with the sweetness of souls and the color of sunsets. I entertain too many hobbies for the word limit and am a recovering DIYer. Foodie to my core, in my bag is always a pair of chopsticks, spoon and reusable bubble tea straw.
Motunrayo “Sade” (sha-day) works as a Senior Journey Design Researcher at Sun Life. With almost 10 years of experience in research roles across multiple industries including technology, financial services, and advertising, Sade brings a diverse perspective to her work. She holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Business and Globalization from De Montfort University Leicester and a Master’s degree in Global Business from the University of Victoria.
As a key part of her role, Sade works to improve customers’ experiences through design research. She leverages tools like Figma and Miro to quickly visualize design ideas informed by qualitative and quantitative customer insights. Sade prioritizes listening to and designing with real customers. She also collaborates regularly with cross-functional teams in marketing, product management, and development. Sade holds a certificate from the Market Research Society for her expertise in market and social research methodology. She is currently enrolled in the McKinsey Black Leadership program through her employer to continue advancing her skills and career. Outside of work, Sade finds balance and fulfillment through spending time with her family, cooking new recipes, and engaging in her local community. She draws inspiration from her diverse personal interests and relationships.
Kari Hodges, MBA, is an equity-focused UX research leader leveraging cross-functional collaboration to craft inclusive experiences. With a background in User Experience Research (UXR) and Business Strategy, Kari drives impactful initiatives to enhance user engagement, product equity, and accessibility.
Passionate about equity in healthcare, Kari has helped companies leverage employee expertise, community partners, and SMEs to build internal equity practices, communities of practice, and accountability systems. At her previous company, she founded the Medical Equity Practice, mobilizing 96 employee volunteers into 14 transdisciplinary teams to improve the experience of– and advocate for– marginalized users. There, she co-founded the Design for Safety Practice, promoting safety-conscious design practices for youth, LGBTQ, elderly, undocumented, and shared computer users.
Kari holds an MBA in Organizational Psychology and Strategy, has trained extensively in UX Research and Design Thinking, and founded a social enterprise supporting gender violence survivors on college campuses.
Kelvin Kaari is a User Researcher, currently at Global Fishing Watch where he is spearheading research on cutting edge products in Ocean Governance. Global Fishing Watch aims to fully map human activity at sea by 2030 for increased transparency and better management of our Ocean resources.
Prior to his current role, Kelvin worked as Insights Associate at Matchboxology, Africa’s first Human Centered Design Firm. At Matchboxology, Kelvin worked on big systemic issues in health and education, leveraging user insights to drive the development of innovative, user-centered solutions.
From a liberal arts background, Kelvin has always been intrigued by human behavior – questions such as why do people do what they do? How can we spark behavior change? Are exciting invitations to seek understanding. Kelvin strongly believes that empathy is inseparable from user research and strives to embed it in the end to end research process.
Outside of work, Kelvin enjoys live music events and singing in choirs!
Martin is a Manager of Experience Research teams with 8+ years of experience in the tech industry. Setting up Research functions within businesses that seek to become more user-centered and mentoring UX Researchers are Martin’s passions. Martin has successfully led research and strategy initiatives in-house, and as a consultant, across the edtech, fintech, and video security sectors.
As a qualitative expert and mixed-methods practitioner, Martin’s guiding principle is that research should create knowledge that people with questions can use asap. Cross-functional collaboration and facilitation of learning occupy most of Martin’s time. A prior 15+ year career in education informs every aspect of Martin’s approach to Experience Research and UX Strategy.
Currently working on a book about how researchers can operate the levers of power within tech organizations, Martin hopes his future activities will include partnerships with product creators and business strategists working on ways to improve the lives of everyday people.
Martin teaches UX Research Methods at UC Berkeley Extension, holds an M.Ed. in International Comparative Education and Policy Analysis from Stanford University, and an MA, in Sociology from Binghamton University. Martin lives in San Francisco and frequents the ballet with his partner. They are under a constant state of supervision from their three cats.
Anam is a highly experienced UX professional based in Markham, Ontario with over 5 years of experience in advocating for design-thinking and growing the maturity of UX teams. She brings a wealth of expertise in conducting comprehensive UX research, which enables her to strategically understand user sentiments and triangulate data to identify pain points and opportunities for measurable product improvement.
Adept at communication and collaboration, Anam excels at ideating and solving product and project problems through a user-centric lens, resulting in drastically optimized digital strategies and user experiences.
Anam’s proven track record in using design-thinking to iterate and optimize UX practices has consistently led to the achievement of North Star business objectives. In her spare time, she enjoys painting, art, design and has a penchant for innovative technologies such as ML, LLMs, AR/VR.
Anthony Vasquez is a senior service designer for the Technology Strategy Office (TSO) at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Office of Public Health Data, Surveillance, and Technology (OPHDST). The TSO’s mission is to evolve the Public Health Data Strategy, enabling the CDC to address gaps in public health data, become response-ready, promote health equity, and improve health outcomes for all.
Anthony is passionate about human-centered design in community health, social services, and healthcare. His focus has been on supporting the work practices of frontline providers in order to improve the end-to-end experience and outcomes of the people and communities they serve.
Anthony worked as a designer, researcher, and program manager providing sociotechnical assistance for frontline providers in community-based organizations. He routinely supported the training and implementation needs of social service programs across serious mental illness, aging and adult services, early childhood education, criminal justice reform, and substance use. He worked closely with social workers, case managers, therapists, psychologists, and psychiatrists to improve their clinical and non-clinical training experience and integrate new technologies into their work practices. He also conducted qualitative research of clients and family members to understand their experience receiving those services.
Anthony has worked as a qualitative researcher in a variety of health industry settings. He conducted ethnography of work practices to co-design the future of work for administrators and laboratory scientists in biotechnology. He conducted exploratory research of primary care and specialist clinics to discover opportunity areas and essential user needs for value-based care digital products. He led insights and strategy for a population health and preventive medicine digital product team, mapping the longitudinal human experience of patients with chronic conditions to identify patterns and intervention opportunities.
Sue Wairimu has over seven years of experience in designing and building products. She gained a strong foundational background in engineering from her undergraduate studies in Civil Engineering at Jomo Kenyatta University of Agriculture and Technology (JKUAT). She applies engineering principles to problem-solving and decision-making, creating solutions that meet user needs.
Sue has worked in both academic and development sectors, partnering with local governments, organizations, clinical leadership, and technical teams throughout the complete innovation cycle. This process involves using ethnographic research to gather behavioral insights, designing innovative solutions to complex systemic challenges, and creating implementation pathways for programs and projects. By adopting human-centered design approaches and systems thinking, she understands the needs of the people she designs for and translates these needs into high-level insights for programs and projects.
Sue is currently an Associate Product Manager at PATH Living Labs, leading global product development efforts. Sue previously worked as a project engineer at the University of Nairobi, Maker Space. She has also worked at the University of Nairobi’s Science and Technology Park under the Makerspace and Fablab outfits, where she led the development of locally designed and fabricated medical devices for Africa. She is a certified product manager through Cornell University. Her experience extends to global health, construction, and climate projects.