Over eight years ago Jean brought her lifelong passion for visual metaphors and more than fifteen years of experience in information design, branding and graphics production to IFTF. Her experience helped IFTF move toward new ways of presenting research material visually through maps, digital stories and many other methods.

She currently leads the communications, creative and production arm of the organization. In this role Jean oversees and collaborates with researchers, artists, writers, and storytellers to create and communicate IFTF work and the visual expression of the research.

In college Jean studied creative writing and journalism. She holds a liberal arts degree from St. Mary's College and a degree in design from the San Jose State University's School of Art & Design. Her career in commercial art began at age 10 designing print invitations for a family events company. Her professional career began in advertising in San Francisco the early 90’s and during the subsequent Internet boom she directed a variety of design, marketing and communications groups for small tech start-ups and large companies such as Softbank and Oracle.