Hi! I'm Angela, Co-Founder of Needl, a YC-backed AI productivity and communication platform. Previously, I drove impact for responsible Generative AI design at Microsoft . And before that, I was a studio kid through and through (more below). From the doodles that covered the walls of my childhood room to the wireframes that fill my computer screen today— I've always loved creating things.

I leverage the natural tension between design and engineering to build impactful things, and particularly enjoy designing novel, human-centric solutions for archaic, age-old problems— which is precisely why I founded Needl, a new way to collaborate at work that's both unified and intelligent. At Microsoft, I also leaned into transforming emerging verticals in AI with a strong focus on craft. From as early as my 18 y/o-self's intern work to recent work leading AI R&D initiatives— I’ve honed in on building delightful, human-centric experiences. I build for customers humans.

Before my big tech and startup ventures, I conducted design research in the adversarial ML space on how to defend against deepfake using gestures & natural body language, scaled out design at the Data Science Institute as the founding designer, and organized local hackathons in Chicago and Seattle. And before that, I founded and ran an independent design studio for many years, stemming from my first job (fun fact!) as curatorial intern at a local contemporary art museum.

When I'm not on Figma or VS Code, you can probably find me exploring the city on 35mm, raving about Kengo Kuma's latest work, or cooking a little too much.