People

Rachel Von Hendrix User Experience Designer at Westfield Insurance Rachel Von Hendrix’s love of design and technology began with a pointe shoe and a sewing machine. Sometimes, she even used them together when the ribbons needed to be a bit lower on the shoe. Every girl she knew in ballet class had the same problem; why didn’t the shoe makers just ask dancers why they like the ribbons lower and then move them? After pursuing a career as a professional dancer, Rachel decided to go to school and pursue a degree in visual design; ostensibly to make a better pointe shoe. While studying visual design and photography at The University of Akron’s, Myer School of Art, she was introduced to User Experience by her professor, an alumna of Kent State University. He noticed Rachel seemed to relish in the research tasks of her design work and he knew the perfect graduate program. So following graduation with a BFA, Rachel was admitted to the IAKM program at Kent State University, graduating with a Master of Science in User Experience Design and a Master of Library & Information Science, while at the same time interning and eventually joining the UX team in Westfield Insurance’s IT department. While art and visual design are still a passion for Rachel, user experience has become her focus and is an active member of the UX community. These days she enjoys collaborating with her team, dreaming up new pointe shoes with lower ribbons and volunteering her time as The Director of Sponsorship for The IA Summit in 2015 and as the gubernatorial appointee for Cuyahoga Community College’s Board of Trustees.