While Monica could be defined as serial dabbler, she prefers to be defined as a curious polymath. With experience ranging from floral design to data analysis, human birth ethnography to salamander research, AI in cardiology to futurism, and UX design to evolutionary biology, her background is varied indeed. Taken together, these experiences have amplified her divergent thinking skills, leading to innovative solutions for every nebulous problem she faces. She likes making sense of ambiguity by asking difficult questions while always keeping people in the foreground.
Most recently, Monica was the Head of New-to-World Innovation at Kenvue FKA Johnson & Johnson. Prior to that she has held strategy, service design, experience design, and design research positions at Marvin Windows Design Lab, U.S. Bank, Mayo Clinic Center for Innovation, Artefact, and Adaptive Path. She holds an MA in Interaction Design from Carnegie Mellon University and a BA in Anthropology from the University of Minnesota.
She has lived at exactly 16 addresses in six states, including Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Washington, New York, and Pennsylvania, since she left for college at the tender age of 17. Finally accepting her plight as a midwestern girl, she doesn’t plan on moving ever. again.
Outside of work, you can find her trying to keep a coral reef in a tiny glass box, talking about antimicrobial resistance, collating (and cooking from) her 150 cookbooks, and wrangling her matching tuxedo cats, chihuahua, plants, and marine aquaria in a 1,000-square-foot apartment.
She only wears black.