Experience

SR. ASSOCIATE ANALYST (UX RESEARCHER)

Vertex Inc.

Sep 2023 - Present

• Using market and discovery UX research methods to analyze user data, identify pain points, and brainstorm user-centric solutions in B2B tax compliance software solutions.

• Led communication strategy meetings, driving internal communication and branding, resulting in increased engagement and departmental visibility.

• Crafted AI Program executive presentations, leveraging qualitative research to guide board-level decisions, influencing strategic direction.

• Orchestrated collaboration with SMEs to create educational materials aimed at equipping internal teams for innovation brainstorming, and for further cross-departmental use to promote awareness of user needs.

• Drove interdepartmental collaboration to create and refine user journey maps using interactive flowcharts, integrating new and legacy data to enhance user journey mapping, pinpointing customer pain points, filling product gaps, and steering innovations to capitalize on market opportunities and increase company revenue.

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LOCALIZATION SPECIALIST FOR SOCIAL LISTENING - ARABIC
Convosphere

May 2023 - Aug (3 months)

• Translating social media content from English into culturally relevant forms across multiple Arabic language communities for client companies' marketing campaigns, ensuring that translations fit with the intended branding. 
   

MIXED METHODS RESEARCHER, LINGUIST, ARABIC PROFESSOR
Virginia Tech (currently remote, in Austin, TX)
Aug 2019 – Sep 2023 (4 years)

Qualitative Study on Minority Language Survival on Social Media                                                           

• Conducting qualitative research using video and thematic analyses to inform how Arabic language-based products on Instagram stay relevant to their target audience.

• Saved $60,000 in university funds by winning a competitive, external grant via a well crafted research proposal.

Quantitative Study on Linguistic Accommodation in Bahrain                                                                

• Conducted quantitative analyses of originally collected data via mixed effects regression modeling in R.

• Reported findings to stakeholders in engaging presentations and 2 peer-reviewed publications.

Machine Learning for Automatic Speech Segmentation for Arabic Varieties                                 

• Collaborated on a machine-learning project for automatic speech segmentation of Arabic dialects.

• Co-created the first-ever phonetic segmentation tool for Arabic linguists and other interested researchers.

Teaching and Instructional Design

• Taught & managed 75+ undergraduate students, leading highly interactive live discussions and gamified learning experiences using in-person and remote, synchronous & asynchronous formats via Zoom and a Learning Management System (LMS).

• Generated a 200% increase in student retention & enrollment within one year.

• Led and developed a new metric for the Arabic curriculum assessments.

• Regularly employed the iterative design process to improve courses: collected user feedback through surveys, identified pain-points, continuously modified and re-launched specific design features.

INSTRUCTOR, LEAD RESEARCHER
The University of Texas at Austin
Jul 2013 – May 2019 (6 years)
Research

• Led, planned, and owned 7+ research studies using a range of qualitative & quantitative methods (1:1 and group interviews, ethnography, literature review, video analysis, questionnaire and survey development, experiment design and data analysis) to produce impact in Arabic linguistics, machine-learning, acoustic phonetics, and language pedagogy.

• Conducted 100+ recorded participant interviews in Arabic.

• Analyzed data in R to identify patterns in language use and to inform future research designs.

• Won a $53,000 competitive research grant by convincing selective stakeholders of project value.

• Reported findings and sought stakeholder feedback in 7 conference presentations, 2 working-papers, and 1 peer-reviewed publication.

Teaching and Instructional Design

• Awarded 2x for teaching excellence (Senate of College Councils and the Liberal Arts Council)

• Managed team-members (teaching assistants) who facilitated class and mentored and advised students.

RESIDENT DIRECTOR, CRITICAL LANGUAGE SCHOLARSHIPS (CLS) PROGRAM
American Councils for International Education, Amman, Jordan
Jun 2015 – Aug 2015 (2 months, summer program)

• Managed and mentored 37 scholarship recipients abroad in Amman, Jordan; provided guidance on navigating cultural aspects & related programmatic requirements.

• Served as a liaison between the students, host program administrators in Jordan and Stateside administrators in Washington, DC.

• Conducted instructional audits and provided pedagogical & programmatic advice to client program to ensure that outcomes aligned with the learning goals of the Stateside funders.

• Conducted weekly team-building & cultural discussion meetings with scholarship recipients.  

CULTURAL ASSISTANT at the CENTER FOR ARABIC STUDY ABROAD (CASA)            
The American University in Cairo, Egypt
May 2013 – Jul 2013 (2 months, summer program)

• Managed, facilitated, and organized the orientation and onboarding process for 40 fellows abroad in Cairo, Egypt.

• Created and implemented an emergency evacuation plan in an event of political unrest in Egypt in 2013.

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