Today I begin a new chapter in Kenya, where I’ll serve as Director of User Experience for MasterCard’s Lab for Financial Inclusion. I’m both excited and humbled to step into this role.

In this position, I’ll manage the end-to-end product design process for innovation across Sub-Saharan Africa. That means guiding ideas from concept to design, prototyping, building, and ultimately launching solutions. Human-centered design will be at the heart of this process—because to drive adoption and create social change, products must be built around real human needs.

Financial inclusion brings together three of my passions: social impact, design, and innovation. My introduction to social impact began in the mid-2000s, when I worked as a web developer at Human Rights Watch. While that work was deeply meaningful, I came to see that advocacy-based models often leave little room for experimentation. I’ve since been drawn to roles that combine human-centered design with innovative approaches to solving problems.

For context, the Lab is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which defines financial inclusion as providing Financial Services for the Poor. We’ve been awarded $11 million dollars to achieve the following goal:

“…to help people in the world’s poorest regions improve their lives and build sustainable futures by connecting them with digitally-based financial tools and services.”

I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to this mission—and to design solutions that help expand access, opportunity, and dignity through financial inclusion.