Design Operations New York 2024

Heather has served for over two decades as a product & design leader at technology companies including Google, Facebook, Pearson and Yahoo. She’s an expert at leading and scaling high performing, global, product & UX (user experience) teams who can deliver disruptive product innovations. Heather is passionate about building inclusive teams and products, works to increase diverse representation and build more inclusive and accessible products. Today, Heather leads the Google Play UX team which supports the needs of both app developers and consumers by designing and building user experiences that deliver joyful discovery, engagement, and innovation within the Android ecosystem. Prior, Heather was a Senior Director at Meta focused on driving Meta’s product strategy, systems and quality, and before that, Heather led several UX teams at Google with a focus on foundational products and services for Google’s products & teams, including learning & development, analytics and ads.

Prior to Google, Heather served as the first Chief Experience Officer (CXO) at Pearson Education and Scholastic leading design and product teams to build transformative experiences to uplevel education at all levels by driving individualized learning at scale. Heather has served for decades as a professor at Harvard, UCLA and Marist College, and today is a guest lecturer at Yale School of Management. She holds a bachelor's degree in Computer Science & Cognitive Psychology from Boston College, an MFA from Bennington College and is the primary inventor on two patents. Lastly, Heather was featured in "Profiles of Women in Human Computer Interaction" by the Anita Borg Institute at Carnegie Mellon University as a woman who has broken through the “glass ceiling” in the industry.