Hey, I’m Vanessa! 👋

I was born and raised in Santiago, Chile, in a family of first-generation immigrants from Taiwan. In many ways, my experience navigating multiple cultural identities serves as a backdrop for all aspects of my life.

Coming from a marketing background, I stumbled upon UX design almost by accident—but it became one of those pandemic interests that stuck. It turned into a full career pivot in 2021 when I moved to Seattle to pursue a Masters in Human Centered Design & Engineering at the University of Washington.

Today, I’m a Product Designer at Cisco, securing identities for organizations of all sizes. Working in cybersecurity has challenged me to advocate for a better user experience even where some friction may be necessary to keep users safe from bad actors. The constraint of balancing usability with security has pushed me to get creative in my problem solving.

Outside of work, I’m always trying new creative outlets, whether it’s crochet, home gardening, dancing, baking (another pandemic hobby that stuck), or more recently, pottery. I’m a huge believer in the power of food as a cultural bridge, so send me your restaurant recs :)