Hi, I'm Keren!

I make complex things feel simple.

Keren smiling outdoors in front of green trees

I spent nineteen years as a competitive swimmer, most of it as a Division I athlete. It's a strange sport: you spend hours perfecting something nobody else can see, just to shave off half a second. I think that's where I first learned to care about the small, invisible details that make something work.

In college, I studied psychology. I was drawn to the question of why people do what they do, not in an abstract way, but practically. Why does someone give up on a form halfway through? Why does one interface feel obvious and another feel like a chore? I didn't have a name for it yet, but I was already thinking like a designer.

I found my way into UX almost by accident, and it clicked immediately. It let me combine the two things I actually cared about: understanding people, and building things that work. Since then, I've designed everything from a security platform used by analysts under pressure, to a health platform built for new mothers looking for information they can trust. Different users, different stakes, same job every time: take something complicated and make it feel simple.

Today I lead product design at the Connecting Mothers Initiative, where I get to do the part of this job I love most: mentoring other designers and helping shape a product that makes something genuinely hard feel a little easier.

Experience

  • UX Designer → UX/Product Design Lead

    Connecting Mothers Initiative · B2C Nonprofit

    May 2025 – Present

  • UX Designer (contract)

    Opsin · AI Cybersecurity

    Mar 2024 – Jul 2024

  • UX Designer & Researcher (contract)

    JoyMee · B2C Wellness

    Jan 2024 – Aug 2024

Education

  • MS Human Factors/Ergonomics, UX Conc.

    San Jose State University (2024 – 2026)

  • BA Psychology, Minor Computer Science

    California State University, Fresno (2018 – 2022)

Outside of Work

I spent nineteen years as a competitive swimmer, including four as a Division I athlete — a sport that taught me discipline long before I knew what to do with it.

I'm also a certified Pilates instructor. Years of teaching taught me how to explain something complicated to a room full of people at very different skill levels, all at once — which turns out to be most of my job as a designer too.

Outside of that, I'm usually traveling (27 countries and counting), taking photos, making jewelry, or baking something.

  • Chicago skyscrapers under a clear blue sky
  • Rocky coastline and a turquoise cove on the open sea
  • Keren swimming butterfly during a race
  • Driving toward the Golden Gate Bridge at dusk
  • Keren looking out at Bixby Bridge on the Big Sur coast
  • Keren skiing on a snowy mountain trail
  • Palm trees silhouetted against an orange sunset
  • Keren and a colleague presenting their research poster at a conference
  • Keren on a grand staircase with words painted on every step