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Aparna Gopal edited this page Feb 26, 2026 · 27 revisions

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Guest Speakers

Past Guest Speakers

Past Guest Speakers

Brian Daniels

Shipra Kayan

Sola Chang

Jessa Anderson, PhD

  • Employer: ServiceNow
  • Role: AI UX researcher and strategist
  • Date: 2023-07-19
  • Topic: Developing Human Centered AI products through UX Research
  • Resources
  • Audience Questions

Jola and Blake

Simon Wolfe Taylor

  • Employer: Web3/Crypto space (current), Facebook (former), Twitter (former)
  • Date: 2022-06-01
  • Topic: UX Research
  • Recording
  • Transcript
  • Resources

In-House Guest Speakers (Alumni and Current)

In-House Guest Speakers (Alumni and Current)

Ciara(Kiki) Salmon

  • Employer: Ciara (Kiki) Salmon is a user experience researcher at a contract agency who conducts research for companies such as Google.
  • Date: 2023-04-26
  • Topic: Accessibility in UX
  • Recording Folder
  • Resources
  • Audience Questions

Sara Brady & Yingjie Ou

  • Project at HfLA: Tech Work Experience TWE/Internship
  • Date: 2023-03-22 [PART 1]
    • Topic: Training Modules Series: ReOps - Best Practices from the TWE Project [PART 1]
    • Recording
    • Resources
  • Date: 2023-04-12 [PART 2]
    • Topic: Training Modules Series: ReOps - Best Practices from the TWE Project [PART 2]
    • Recording
    • Resources
  • Date: 2023-06-14 [PART 3]
    • Topic: CONSENT FORM TEMPLATE - Training Modules Series: ReOps - Best Practices from the TWE Project [PART 3]
    • Recording
    • Resources

Dr.Sandy Oh

Helen Lin

  • Employer: Well-known social media companies (contract roles)
  • Date: 2022-11-16
  • Topic:Reflections and experiences as a UX Researcher
  • Recording Folder
  • Resources

Briel Kobal

  • Project at HfLA: Survey Guide, Food Oasis (long-term), TDM Calculator (short-term usability testing)
  • Date: 2022-11-09
  • Topic: Experiences and benefits of working on a Guide
  • Recording
  • Transcript

Maria Elizabeth Rodriguez Beltran

Danielle Nedivi

Jane He

  • Employer: TDM Calculator at Hack for LA
  • Date: 2022-06-22
  • Topic: Experiences as a UX Research Lead for TDM Calculator and best practices
  • Recording
  • Transcript
  • Chat

Nassa Jumpholwong

Kevin Perez

  • Project: 311-data
  • Employer post HfLA: General Motors
  • Date: 2021
  • Topic: Transitioning to UX
  • Recording
  • Transcript

Jennifer Spencer

Helen Lin

  • Project:
  • Employer post HfLA: Tik tok
  • Date: 2021-09-02
  • Topic: Transitioning to UX
  • Resources

Bret Davis

Potential Speakers

Potential Speakers

  • Speakers who are Recruiters - and can speak about UX recruiting and influx of AI while recruiting - 2026 version
  • Speakers and practitioners focussing on Research Operations (ReOps), Research Management and Design Systems (to align with HfLA'a long-term vision in ReOps & Design Systems)
  • Consider speakers from different industries: healthcare, gaming, e-commerce, finance, AI, Automotive (EV), Aircraft (example: Boeing)
  • Consider speakers from career transitioners & UX alternate/adjacent careers for more options in industry roles

To be Invited Speakers

  • Brett Davis
  • Employer: Indeed (UX Director, Design Systems)
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Design Systems Best Practices, Indeed's Design System processes & best practices
  • Lauren Rice
  • Employer: IBM, Carbon Design System (Senior Visual Design Lead)
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Design Systems Best Practices, IBM Carbon Design System's processes & best practices
  • Emily Wever
  • Employer: Appfire
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: ReOps, Pivoting careers from banking to ReOps
  • Amber Asaro
  • Employer: Red Hat
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic:ReOps at scale, Protecting research quality at scale
  • Andrea Knight Dolan
  • Employer: Principal Researcher at Informed Insights, Lecturer at UC Santa Cruz, Ex-Google
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: A Pioneer in AI-Empowered Research & Product Development, Andrea specializes in leveraging artificial intelligence to revolutionize user experience research and product strategy.
  • Lauren Law
  • Employer: Research Operations Manager at Contentful
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: ReOps and experience with research management at Contentful

Alyssa Randall

  • Employer: Director of Product, ALTIS LABS
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Health tech - Harnessing AI applied to medical imaging (how do health tech products work & what can UX'ers learn from it/contribute to it)

Kezie Todd

  • Employer: IDEO Play Lab, Senior Interaction Designer
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Working at IDEO (consulting)

Amanda (Mandi) H.

  • Employer: Microsoft Research, Senior UX/CX Health Research Lead
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: UX health research

Eunjoo Kim

  • Employer: Google, Sr. Staff UX Design Lead
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Leading a team at Google

Rachel Simon

  • Employer: IBM, Lead UX Designer
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Working at IBM

Torin Edwards

  • Employer: Adobe, Sr. UX Lead
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Working at Adobe

Stephen Hassard PhD

  • Employer: Google, UX Research Manager
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: How to lead a team of UXRs

Morgan (Velarde) Romero

  • Employer: Riot Games
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: UX in Gaming Industry

Alina A.

  • Employer: Riot Games
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: UX in Gaming Industry

Julio Castellano

  • Employer: Canva, Lead Product Designer (Focus: AI design experience)
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: UX in AI

Maggie Ciarcia

  • Employer: Google, Senior Design Recruiter
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Portfolio/Interview Advice

Jamie Borcheres

  • Employer: Amazon, Design & Tech Recruiter (all UX profiles)
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Portfolio/Interview Advice

Jyoti Pundir

  • Employer: Amazon, Design Recruiter (Sr. UX Designer, UX Designer, Design Technologist)
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Portfolio/Interview Advice

Jami Hoffman Barretieri

  • Employer: Apple, Senior Design Recruiter / Senior Creative Recruiter
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Portfolio/Interview Advice

Emma B.

  • Employer: DoorDash, Product Design Recruiter
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Portfolio/Interview Advice

Michelle Carney

  • Employer: Google, Sr. UX Researcher, Machine Learning + AI
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: UX in Machine Learning + AI

Kylie Hansen

  • Employer: Microsoft, Director of Design for AI Experience Strategy
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: UX of AI

Sarah Kessler

  • Employer: Gympass
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: UX Writer - Journey, job search & day-to-day

Khaliya McCall

  • Employer: Creative People
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: UX Recruiter

Jared Tredly

  • Employer: Bamboo Crowd
  • Date: To make contact
  • Topic: Recruiter: UX Design/Product Design

Ryan Curtis (Hack for LA Alumni)

  • Employer: Microsoft
  • Date: to make contact
  • Topic: Transitioning to UX Design from a non-design background/different profession

MERL Center,GitHub Social Impact (Contact Bonnie W to initiate contact within MERL)

  • Employer: Civic Tech Structure
  • Date: to make contact (review list in link & make contact)
  • Topic: Open Source Data Analysis tools that UX Researchers can use
  • Notes: A community of MERL professionals The monitoring, evaluation, research and learning (MERL) Center is a community creating resources about the intersection of MERL and open source, data science and human-centered design, for people of any technology capacity. https://merlcenter.org

Invited Speakers

Laura Costantino

  • Employer: Google
  • Date: 2022-06-02 (first contact made via emails, speaker unable to make it )
  • Topic: Working and developing skills as a UX Writer

Kate Kaplan

Misel Marusic

  • Employer: Caplena: Analyze free text comments through AI
  • Date: to make contact (does not align with HfLA non-profit goals)
  • Topic: Demo, text analysis tool for customer experience feedback.

Founders of Wonsulting

  • Employer: Wonsulting
  • Date: To make contact (does not align with HfLA non-profit goals)
  • Topic: Resume & Interview support, using AI

Susan Farrell

  • Employer: mmhmm.app, previously NN/g & All Turtles
  • Date: May 2023, declined
  • Topic: Exploring Artificial Intelligence in UX, maybe specifically UX research or AI products

John Holleman

  • Employer: ServiceNow Senior Product Design Manager
  • Date: April 2023, Invited, No response
  • Topic: Recruiting UX/UI

Jessica Scherer

  • Employer: ServiceNow Sr. Technical Recruiter
  • Date: April 2023, Invited, No response
  • Topic: Recruiting UX/UI

Emily Lok

  • Employer: N/A, Specializes in XR (extended reality) and AI (artificial intelligence), Udemy course maker
  • Date: Emailed 07/11/23, No response
  • Topic: Product Design in AI

Alyssa Perel

  • Employer: Product Designer at Ticketmaster. Hack for LA Alum
  • Date: Messaged on LinkedIn September 27, 2023, Emailed October 5, 2023
  • Topic: Product Design in Entertainment/Live Events Industry

Alvin L.

  • Employer: Product Designer at Disney
  • Date: Messaged on LinkedIn October 4, 2023
  • Topic: Product Design in Media & Entertainment

Brent Nuñez

  • Employer: Product Designer at Instagram
  • Date: Emailed on October 6, 2023
  • Topic: Product Design in Social Media

James Appleby

  • Employer: Senior Product Designer at Instagram
  • Date: Emailed on October 9, 2023
  • Topic: Product Design in Social Media

Taylor Baer

  • Employer: Senior Product Designer at Duolingo
  • Date: Messaged on LinkedIn on October 30, 2023
  • Topic: Product Design in Education Tech

Sara Gabriele

  • Employer: UX Research Manager at Coursera
  • Date: Messaged on LinkedIn on October 30, 2023
  • Topic: UX Research in Education Tech

Shipra Kayan

Kara Pernice

  • Employer: Senior Vice President at Nielsen Norman Group
  • Date: In March 2023, Speaker responded, but not available to give talk until Fall. Sent follow up invite 9/1/23.
  • Topic: Research Ops Author of NN/g Article:Research Repositories for Tracking UX Research and Growing Your ResearchOps NN/g Page: https://www.nngroup.com/articles/author/kara-pernice/

Speaker Instructions and Resources

Speaker Instructions and Resources

Purpose of UI/UX Community of Practice Talks

  • The UI/UX Community of Practice is a place for professional development for current Hack for LA members.
  • Members of the CoP can learn, ask questions, or collaborate with fellow members or invited guests.
  • Topics range widely from (but not limited to):
    • Learning relevant skills for working within teams
    • Sharing a case study, portfolio, or product idea
    • Obtaining a job in the field of UI/UX
    • Learning about new trends in the field

Speaker Eligibility

The UI/UX Community of Practice Co-Leads welcome speakers from all levels of experience to share, present, and collaborate with members of the UI/UX CoP. Past speakers have included:

  • Invited guests from various tech companies
  • Alumni who currently have a UI/UX role
  • Alumni who have worked in fields adjacent to UI/UX
  • Current members who want feedback on:
    • A product from another HfLAn Team
    • Their portfolio
    • An upcoming job presentation
    • A case study
    • A HfLA guide

Examples of Past Speaker Presentations

Guidelines for Talks

Structure

  • The structure is up to the speaker. However, a format that has worked in the past has been to send a GitHub issue to UI/UX CoP members a head of time that collects questions.
  • The CoP Co-Leads will collate the questions into common themes and send the list of questions back to the speaker who then develops a structure of their talk based upon the common questions.
  • In order to give enough time for this format to work, we recommend the following timeline:
    • 3-4 weeks before talk: Speaker agrees and consents to delivering a talk based upon a particular topic.
    • 2-3 weeks before talk: Co-Leads develop Q&A issue and send to UI/UX members via the ui-ux Slack Channel (see example Slack announcement).
    • 1-2 weeks before talk: Co-Leads organize the questions into themes and send back to the speaker.
    • Day of talk: Speaker delivers talk based upon questions.
    • Day of talk: Late arriving questions are added to the Q&A time at the end of the speaker's presentation.
  • If you require more or less time, please let the Co-Leads know.

Timing

  • The UI/UX CoP meets for one hour.
  • We cannot guarantee that the Zoom meeting will go beyond one hour due to other HfLA meetings being scheduled on the same Zoom account.
  • We recommend planning to deliver a 30 minute talk, leaving about 20-25 minutes for Q&A. However, you may decide to adjust the talk-to-Q&A ratio.

Formality

  • Talks given to the UI/UX CoP have no defined structure.
  • Level of formality is entirely up to you. Past examples have included:
    • Talk with a formal slide deck
    • Walkthrough of website or document
    • Casual conversation answering questions from attendees

Recordings

  • You may decide to have your talk recorded and shared internally with UI/UX CoP members or externally in other HfLA channels.
  • We have also had presenters share information with attendees and later decide to withdraw from sharing their talk more broadly.
  • Even if content is shared only with attendees during a meeting, we cannot guarantee that identifiable information will not be shared beyond the group. Therefore, be careful about sharing sensitive information with the group!

Advertising the Talk

  • In most cases, we announce talks internally via our ui-ux Slack Channel. This means that only UI/UX CoP members would have access to the Zoom link.
  • Depending on your preference, we may decide to announce the talk via our Meetup account. This would allow individuals from the general public to attend the talk.
  • Work with the CoP Co-Leads to decide how open or closed you would like to make your talk available to others.

Consent

  • Link: Speaker Consent Form for Presentation
  • The consent form for speakers includes the following:
    • Advertising your presentation
    • Recording audio and video files
    • Sharing and storing presentation materials
  • You will be given an opportunity on the form to provide specific instructions or accommodations.

Repository The recorded talks are shared in our Wiki and YouTube channel (coming soon!)

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