K12 Inc • Vice President, Creative (2/01 – present)

Creative Director for K12, an educational company creating a variety of online and offline curriculum products for the K-12 market. (Over 300 products in 14 years.) 

Leadership

  • Staff, develop and mentor the Creative Department responsible for online, print, media and UI.
  • Create a culture that embraces teamwork, ownership and empowerment, working within Product Development and with external groups such as marketing and engineering.
  • Inspire group to create engaging and innovative designs for media, online interactive, and print products assuring that materials are grade level appropriate and meet learning objectives.

 

Operations and Process

  • Collaborate with marketing, engineering and key stakeholders for future business planning.
  • Forecast product roadmap, and determine appropriate workload and resource requirements, ensuring high utilization rates and job satisfaction.
  • Analyze competition and new technologies, creating recommendations for future products.
  • Continuous improvement in cost reduction by creation of tools, templates and engines to streamline production of award winning products.
  • Determine opportunities for cost savings and create relationships with and train external vendors, including overseas off-shoring relationships. Communicate regularly with vendors to ensure 96%+ utilization rates and consistency and quality of products.

 

Design

  • Create style guides and standards for products, and coordinate with marketing to ensure brand positioning and recognition.
  • Create prototypes for pilots and new products. Participate in focus testing, and supply analysis and solutions for findings.
  • Conceptualized and developed first community offering for K12 parents, teachers and students.

 

Other Accomplishments

  • Created intranet site for design team to facilitate and streamline communications with vendors, illustrate new product development initiatives, and communicate with senior management and ensure consistency within products.
  • Led UI team in prototyping, wireframing user-centered design approach for instances of the LMS for different age groups and audiences (students, teachers and parents).
  • Collaborated with engineering to design a flexible CMS to allow for delivery to multiple audiences, and efficiency in repurposing content.
  • Spearheaded design of characters, games and game strategy for products.
  • Led the conversion of over 23,000 Flash assets to 508/WCAG2 HTML5 mobile ready assets
  • Led the UK localization of K-5 Science and Math courses, including online and offline materials

 

HiFusion/Mindsurf • DESIGN DIRECTOR (1/00 – 2/01)

Design Director and Information Architect for HiFusion, a free, educational ISP service, with customized portals geared toward parents, teachers and students.

  • Staffed, developed and mentored entire Design Department, including web developers, UI designers and graphic designers.
  • Created processes, procedures, workflow and team environment for department to ensure delivery of multiple products within 3-6 month time frames with focus on quality.
  • Implemented user-centered design principles to create 5 audience customized portals, ISP service, eBlast product, communications tools and interfaces for PALM and WIN CE devices for use within classrooms.
  • Collaborated with engineering to create a CMS to expedite daily publishing of content by non-technical staff. 
  • Researched, user tested and evaluated products to ensure age appropriate solutions, and customer satisfaction.
  • Implemented effective focus and user testing plans for products.

 

Philips Design • ART DIRECTOR (3/97 - 1/00)

Art Director, Lead Artist, and Information Architect for Philips Design, a global design group responsible for Philips' world wide online presence.

  • Conceptualized, designed and integrated over 20 products for various target markets, including: WWW sites, online shopping (Philips USA Online Store), CD ROMs (Science, Tobacco & You), video walls (Great Lakes Science Center), and cross-platform user interfaces (SmartConnect).
  • Recruited, mentored, motivated and set objectives for a staff of five full-time and four contractual artists to work on multiple concurrent projects.
  • Spearheaded changes in production process by adopting Dreamweaver, thereby streamlining pathways between Information Architects, Graphic Designers, Engineering and QA. Directed and facilitated negotiations between clients and production staff, from initial contact through final release.
  • Researched and implemented effective focus and user testing plans for various global projects.

 

Redmon Group • GRAPHIC DESIGNER (12/96 - 3/97)

Multimedia Consultant for Redmon Group -- a software development firm specialized in assisting commercial, federal, international, and university organizations to attain their goals and objectives through the application of interactive media.

  • Designed overall "look and feel" of interactive products for various target markets and platforms (e.g.; Computer Based Training for Bell Atlantic and Educational CD ROMs for ASCD).
  • Drove graphic content from initial concept, through scheduling, implementation and quality assurance on multiple projects simultaneously.
  • Researched changes in technology and recommended hardware and software for design department.

 

Philips Studio Interactive • GRAPHIC DESIGNER (3/95 – 12/96)

Graphic Artist, Designer for Studio Interactive -- a division of Philips Media, producing educational, entertainment and information CD ROMs and WWW sites for various third parties.

  • Designed and created original 2D & 3D graphics and animation, character descriptions, storyboards, and interfaces for CD-ROM products (e.g.; Jumanji - A Jungle Adventure Game Pack, Fun with Electronics, Digital Lab, Metro Navigator, CyberCraft Hands-on Learning, Human Body). Designed prototype for KidPro, CompuServe's first children's web channel. Coordinated engineers and artists to develop tools to streamline production (Photoshop layer development and extraction).

 

CapDisc • GRAPHIC DESIGNER (2/92 – 2/95)

Graphic Artist/Animator for CapDisc - a software development firm specializing in multi-platform development (e.g.; CDi, CD-ROM, Sega) for entertainment, education, training and kiosks.

  • Initiated and chaired group focusing on development of new children's titles. Designed and implemented interfaces for interactive products (e.g.; Sea World's Arctic Net and Manatees the Last Generation? kiosks). Created 3D animations, original 2D graphics, technical and non-technical illustrations, sell sheets, packaging and annual reports (e.g.; Merck Aseptic Training Techniques, Bell Atlantic Directory 2000, Shark Alert, First Blood at Manassas, Winston Churchill, InfoTravel, Kingdom - The Far Reaches, Oberon, Hangman of the 21st Century).

 

 EDUCATION

Virginia Commonwealth University 1991

BFA Communication Arts & Design - focus on Graphic Design (Cum Laude).               

 

 PRODUCT TITLES

ONLINE LEARNING COURSES

Over 300 courses in the K-12 and high school space, including the areas of math, science, language arts, phonics, history, art and music.

 

APPS

Over 50 IOS and Android apps in the K-12 space including the award winning AP Exam review app.

 

CD ROMS

Over 20 titles including Fun With Electronics and Digital Lab with Becker and Mayer

 

RECOMMENDATION (Additional references available upon request)

“I’ve worked at K12 Inc. in project management for almost 8 years and with Kim for most of them. Kim is extremely creative -- both in her design work and direction, but also in problem solving. Whether it's a game, an animation, illustration or publication, the assets she and her team produce are truly extraordinary. And it’s been Kim’s vision and leadership that has inspired us to create gorgeous products year after year, despite massive challenges. In fact, she seems to be at her best when things are at their craziest. No matter what, Kim’s dependable, thoughtful, and insightful in all aspects of her work. She’s proactive and quickly comes up with a plan and plan B. She speaks up when something's not right and always has the big picture in mind. She's a leader who is loyal to and protective of her people while still reaching business goals. And her willingness to roll-up her sleeves and help others has gotten us through countless tight spots. All of this and more has earned her much respect.”

-- Jennifer Thompson, Director of Program Management, Product Development, K12 Inc.