The Reef Project
Challange
Winner of the 2015 Best Seminar Project
PBDS 740 Seminar is the capstone course of the University of Baltimore’s Publications Design M.A. program. This course tests and stretches all knowledge and skills students have been learning up to this point.
Students create an imaginary non-profit organization that fills a need in the community (local or international) and then work in teams to analyze its audience, develop a plan for making it public via print and/or other media, and design and write working prototypes.
I conceived The Reef Project after I was lucky enough to see the gorgeous coral reefs of the Caribbean and the Maldives in person. I fell in love with the beauty of coral reefs and all the exotic marine life you can find there.
This inspired me to think of ways that anyone, whether they lived near a coral reef or not, could help save this precious natural resource.
As team leader of The Reef Project, I:
- Created audience profiles
- Determined the organization’s mission and wrote the vision statement
- Developed guidelines for measuring the success of initiatives
- Collaborated on the logo design with team member Becky Ohlhaver
- Created and designed the Coral Reef Activity Packet (PDF) and Answer Key
- Created and designed the Coral Reef Campaign Starter Kit (PDF)
- Designed and developed The Reef Project’s website and wrote all the web content
- Wrote the Final Project Document (PDF)
- Presented the completed project, first to classmates and then to judges
- Oversaw and enforced schedules, process documentation and other managerial duties
University of Baltimore
The Publications Design graduate degree program.
Programs & Tools
Adobe Acrobat, InDesign, Illustrator and Photoshop; Power Point; WordPress CMS
Result
The Seminar class of 2015 started with seven teams.
After presentations to the class and faculty at the end of the semester, four teams, including The Reef Project, moved on to present their work to a panel of judges from the professional community.
Those judges selected The Reef Project as the winner of the 2015 Kvedar Award for Best Seminar Project.
National Student Clearinghouse
Challange
User Experience & Interface Design for Web Applications
The National Student Clearinghouse (a nonprofit formed in 1993) is the trusted source for and leading provider of higher education verification and electronic education record exchanges, handling more than 700 million verification requests and over 250 million education record exchanges annually.
The Clearinghouse serves as a single point of contact for the collection and timely exchange of accurate and comprehensive enrollment, degree, and certificate records on behalf of its more than 3,600 participating higher education institutions, which represent 98 percent of all students in public and private U.S. institutions.
The Clearinghouse also provides thousands of high schools and districts with continuing collegiate enrollment, progression, and completion statistics on their alumni.
I served as the sole User Experience (UX) & User Interface (UI) Design consultant for the National Student Clearinghouse on two projects — StudentTracker for Colleges & Universities and the Student Academic Portal.
As part of the UX/UI design process, I created the following deliverables:
- Researched, wrote and designed layout for a competitive analysis report.
- Conducted user interviews and created user personas.
- Developed and designed case studies, workflows and process flows.
- Created paper prototypes and multiple decks of wireframes in Balsamiq.
- Designed UI mock ups in Photoshop and shared on InVision.
Programs & Tools
Balsamiq; Adobe Acrobat, InDesign, Photoshop; InVision, Microsoft Word
Car-Free Friday
Challange
Encouraging a Community to Drive Less
This was an assignment in Words and Images at the University of Baltimore. I was tasked with identifying an issue or cause that affects members of my community.
My town, Columbia, Maryland, was planned as a pedestrian-friendly community with more than 80 miles of neighborhood pathways. Yet Columbia residents often forget about the pathways and drive everywhere.
So I created a call to action for Car-Free Fridays, urging people to leave their cars at home once a week.
My campaign communications plan included a logo and brand identity, posters, postcards, magazine ads and a website mock ups.
University Of Baltimore
The Publications Design graduate degree program.
Programs & Tools
Adobe Illustrator, InDesign, Photoshop; Canon Rebel XS SLR Camera
Results
I received an “A” on this project and my professors specifically praised my web design work.
Monica Motley Yoga
Challange
Monica is famous for her HOT and energetic yoga classes. So she wanted to bring elements of that style into her logo and website.
I created a logo and designed a new website for this Maryland-based yoga teacher. The website included advertising and registrations for Zoom classes during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Programs & Tools
Graphic Design / Web design / Wix Website Builder, Adobe Illustrator & Photoshop
Results
Monica’s Zoom class registrations almost doubled in the week following the launch of her new website.
Mythic Landing Enterprises
Challange
Website Design, Development & Content Management
Mythic Landing Enterprises offers an array of professional services to help businesses succeed. Their knowledgeable, creative, and resourceful team specializes in communications, marketing, business management, and event planning.
Based in the heart of Maryland, Mythic Landing Enterprises support U.S. and international clients ranging from one-person start-ups to nationally recognized associations.
I have been doing web design, development and content management on nearly 60 websites for Mythic Landing Enterprises since 2014.
My services have included:
- Designing and developing responsive, mobile-ready websites using WordPress CMS, the JupiterX theme and the Elementor page builder.
- Executing the life cycle of 18 new or redesigned websites to date.
- Creating and editing content and maintaining WordPress for nearly 60 websites.
Programs & Tools
Adobe Photoshop, WordPress CMS with Jupiter/Jupiter X themes and the Elementor page builder.