Hello!

I’m Gillan, or Gilly; whatever works for you. Originally from the D.C. area, I grew up just outside of the capital in Silver Spring, MD. My happy place is in a park or garden, Rock Creek, Sligo, and Brookside Gardens are among my local favorites.

I attended Carnegie Mellon in Pittsburgh where I studied Environments Design, design within physical, digital, and hybrid spaces, and minored in Gender Studies. I proudly served as Executive Producer of CMU’s largest event, Lunar Gala: FEROX in 2018, a fashion show showcasing student and local talent in design, modeling, dance, branding, sound and visual production to 3000+ community members. I was also a member of Infra, our campus’ contemporary dance company, where I served as co-Artistic Director during my senior year, performing and choreographing with some of my most cherished friends.

I’ve been a practicing user experience and product designer for the last 7 years (since 2018), working at a variety of places from a one-woman company to a global design agency and most recently a climate-tech startup. I love the process of creative problem solving and find that my work is always better when I’ve spent time collecting data. User research and interviewing has always been one of my favorite parts of the design process, but I also love a good specification document.

In addition to being a practicing designer I’ve also played the role of product manager at my current company. I work with tech/engineering leads and internal and external stakeholders to establish and document product opportunities and questions. Working through the lens of design helps me keep technical requirements and user experience needs balanced as I guide our team towards the core problems we aim to solve, and eventually toward an execution plan that will get us there efficiently without cutting corners.

Some of my passions outside of my design practice include dance, yoga, knitting, cooking/baking, drinking tea with friends, and traveling. I am an aspiring minimalist and advocate for a zero-waste lifestyle (though I have yet to claim either title).

My education and experience has exposed me to these issues around sustainability and individual responsibility, which I hope to continue in my future practice. A major goal of mine is to lead a project that combines sustainability initiatives, urban planning, social development, and interaction and environments design within urban communities.

I am a current resident of Park Slope, Brooklyn and live there with my partner who is also a practicing designer. We are one day looking forward to adopting a dog.