Hi! I’m Hailey.

I’m a writer, strategist, and human-centered designer living in New York City.

People are fascinating. So much about human behavior is predictable, but there is always more to learn about what exactly makes us tick. There are always more problems to solve even in day-to-day life, and an expression of delight on a fellow human’s face is always a fresh delight in itself. There is always more to learn and improve in human life—and I’m a voracious learner.

Technology is fascinating. So far, it’s have been much more predictable and fully comprehensible compared to humans, but with wilder and seemingly limitless possibilities—and with the strides in artificial intelligence, even the idea of predictability is up for grabs. There are so many opportunities that could unfurl into the ever-evolving winds of society that could do so much good (and so much harm) to the living world—and I love this, too.

Most of all, I am fascinated by the combination, by the interfaces that mediate human use of computers and the interactions that happen at those interfaces. I am passionate about enhancing these interfaces and surrounding processes to create meaningful relationships between humans and technology, to help people to solve their most important problems, and to promote human flourishing.

My mission in life is to apply my passions to help other people.

I am passionate about understanding how things work. I am voraciously curious, and strive to approach the world with bravery, humility, and a sharp eye for understanding the interrelated intricacies within the big picture, and what possibilities exist for the future. I am tremendously excited to know that I will continue to learn every single day for the rest of my life, and that I will implement what I have learned in the ever-evolving world to serve others.

I am passionate about creating things. I have always loved to create—stories, essays, films, robots, small devices, 3D-printed objects, novel perspectives on known issues, alternative solutions to everyday problems. Nothing thrills me more than inventing a reframed lens to help someone reconsider a problem herself, or implementing a new product or process to make someone’s life even just a little bit easier or more joyful. I love creating most when the things I create serve others.

Right now, I’m working and creating in New York, New York.

As a senior consultant in innovation strategy, I’ve helped brands connect with the people and help those people make the progress in their lives that means the most to them. To do this, I work on client project teams to conduct market and competitive/comparative research, deeply understand the target customer (and/or which customer to target) through qualitative and quantitative research, and develop strong, grounding strategic vision with accompanying design and the words to support it. In this role, I’ve continued my exploration of how design and descriptions influence human behavior—and take satisfaction in helping to shape the brands that people experience every day, to be an even slightly better part of people’s lives.

I graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth College with a degree in Cognitive Science.

I studied Cognitive Science with a focus in Human-Computer Interaction Design at Dartmouth College, concentrating on the social and ethical implications of human interactions with anthropomorphic computers (including embodied computers, or robots). I asked questions about the effects of design and description on our thought, talk, and treatment of those machines that draw the attribution of human mental states and characteristics. For example, the fact that you might have asked your Amazon Alexa a personal question recently or named your Roomba vacuum cleaner are both great candidates for my research. In particular, in my senior honors thesis I argued that the potential for top-down effects to influence anthropomorphism has been so far underexplored; I motivated and then reported the results of my new empirical study suggesting that top-down linguistic cues (including anthropomorphic metaphors, personal pronouns, and other grammatical constructions) increase anthropomorphism of a robot. You can read more about my exploration of this topic here. I graduated summa cum laude from Dartmouth in June of 2020 with a bachelor’s degree, honors, and induction into Phi Beta Kappa.

While at Dartmouth, I fell in love with design after taking Professor James Mahoney’s class in Digital Design, and even more in love with user-centered design after taking Professor Peter Robbie’s class in Design Thinking. I applied and was selected to work as a project manager and designer in the Digital Arts Leadership and Innovation (DALI) Lab, collaborating with thought leaders and start-ups to bring digital projects from pitch to product realization. This opportunity to collaborate with other Dartmouth students in small cross-functional teams to create real-world products confirmed my desire to work in user experience design after my time at Dartmouth. I also fell even more with strategic holistic systems thinking after taking Steve Peterson’s Systems Dynamics course, and was accepted to present my research on “The anthropomorphic effect on technology adoption dynamics” at the annual international Systems Dynamics Society conference.

I am a driven, creative problem-solver and team player who loves a challenge.

I am driven to understand more. Since I was three years old, I have been known by those around me to ask many, many questions, and to likewise explain the intricacies of phenomena when they asked questions in return. In high school, I became interested in robotics, eventually becoming team captain of our FIRST Tech Challenge competition robotics team and leading my high school peers to win four major awards and advance to the national level. Simultaneously, I became particularly interested in how humans work, the physical and chemical processes of the body—especially the brain. More and more, I wanted to know what makes people tick, at the chemical level but also at the behavioral—individual, societal, cultural—and from as many different perspectives as possible. I wanted a multi-faceted approach to the problems of cognition to best understand how it worked. At Dartmouth, I was fortunate to find the Cognitive Science program, which afforded me that exact opportunity: the chance to draw from psychology, neuroscience, philosophy, linguistics, computer science, anthropology, sociology, and economics to approach a sharper and more holistic understanding of how cognition works. I have loved this interdisciplinary approach, and will continue to seek cross-functional approaches to understand the inner workings of problems moving forward.

I am driven to do more. At 11 years old, I realized that “J.K. Rowling” and the other neatly printed names on the covers of my favorite books did not represent awesomely supernatural, intangible beings—rather, I realized that these names belonged to real, actual people—and decided that I would be an author too, someday… and then I thought, Why wait? I immediately began creating stories informed by my growing interest in science that I hope will entertain, educate, and inspire. When I discovered the world of innovation through robotics, I found that I loved creating novel approaches to problems within certain sets of constraints—approaches informed by the diverse perspectives of my team. As my academic interests led me to cognitive science, I found it thrilling when I was able to apply what I had learned about human cognitive processes and behavior to create new products and experiences to solve a problem, connect with people, and help them to make meaningful progress in their lives.

I thrive on cross-functional teams. I have always tried to understand problems from every possible facet, and then implementing what can be learned from each to provide an optimized solution. I have also always loved collaborating with others, and excel at building strong working relationships through clear and consistent communication and a positive attitude. It is not surprising then that I enjoy working cross-functional teams most of all: I love sitting at a nexus of perspectives with other curious, driven problem-solvers as we coordinate our different knowledge sets to inform a novel response to the problem. In team situations, I find myself equally comfortable taking direction from others to better learn about the details of a problem space as well as helping to define the big-picture priorities of a project, coordinating the group to accomplish the set goals, and communicating both among individuals within the team and to individuals outside the team about our project’s vision and status. I am a team player, and I thrive on teams dedicated to leveraging the diverse perspectives of each member.

I thrive on a challenge. I thrive when I know I am improving—as a person, as a designer, as a citizen of the world—and know that I grow when I am challenging myself. I try to do something every day that I am not good at (rollerblading is my latest endeavor—let’s just say it was a good idea to invest in knee and elbow pads!) to cultivate humility and to push myself to keep learning and to stay open to the exciting world around me. I am grateful for every challenge I have faced that has helped me to grow into who I am, and I look forward to the next.

I am an explorer of the outdoors and of ideas.

Find me often outside. I grew up hiking with my family, and have loved my adventures to 13 of the U.S. National Parks to date. Standing on mountains overlooking the pines of Glacier and the falls of Yosemite, meeting marmots in Olympia and the giant trees of Sequoia, and sleeping under the stars at the bottom of the Grand Canyon have instilled in me a great sense of awe, humility, and profound appreciation for our world and for the entities with which we share it. Mountains, trees, and rivers are three of my greatest loves, though the tenacious and creative creatures of the desert also hold a special place in my heart. New York City has brought its own excitement, but I will say that figuring out I can take the Metro-North line up into the Hudson Valley to hike on the weekends has been a veritable game changer.

Find me often discussing big ideas. Yeah, I was the person who brought up free will and whether we have it in fraternity basements. I’ve always loved understanding more about our intuitive responses and thoughts on big topics, and love exploring that. I’ve also always taken seriously the idea of examining what I believe and why I believe it, and find respectful discussion to be instrumental to this investigation. Not surprisingly, I loved my studies in the philosophy courses I was so happy to take while at Dartmouth, and I thoroughly enjoy all opportunities to hear and discuss others’ first-take or expert perspectives on any issue. Those who know me know that they can just as easily find me dancing ridiculously at a party or befriending highland cows as they could find me discussing metaphysics, philosophy of religion, or tech design ethics.

I would love to hear from you.

I am always eager to hear about new ideas, collaborations, and exciting projects, so please do not hesitate to reach out.