# Anca Bălăceanu > Designer by training. People lover at heart. Location: San Francisco, California, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/ancablceanu Designer by training. People lover at heart. Born in Romania & based in San Francisco. Creating the best experiences for humans is what gets me up in the morning. Currently, I'm doing that by building the universal search engine for food at MealMe. In the past, I've created experiences that bring delight to people on the autism spectrum, improve communication between providers and patients in a hospital, and facilitate design thinking education for college students, among other cool things. ## Work Experience ### Head of Product & Education Coordinator @ Upgrade Education Jan 2025 – Present | Bucharest, Romania ### Website & Graphic Designer @ NetXD Inc. Jan 2024 – Jan 2024 Revamped the company's website and created custom illustrations and branding guidelines Produced visual assets for marketing purposes (pitch decks, brochures, and others) ### Graphic Designer @ Suger Jan 2024 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco Bay Area Creating eye candy for marketing and sales communications ### Founding Designer @ Aimor.ai Jan 2023 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco Bay Area Designed the interface for Aimor - an AI-powered relationship counselor trained in empathic communication styles ### Chief Design Officer & Co-Founder @ y9 design Jan 2023 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco, California, United States Unlocking the creative potential of humanity through interdisciplinary collaborations. Co-led the development of an international partnership with Blast Off, GmbH - a leading design firm in Switzerland ### Design Lead @ MealMe, Inc. Jan 2021 – Jan 2023 | San Francisco, California, United States Led the holistic design direction of the company (mobile, web, branding) Created fundraising and sales pitch decks Was employee #8 and the first full-time woman at the company ### Human-Centered Design Fellow @ Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth Jan 2020 – Jan 2021 | Hanover, New Hampshire, United States Working as a teaching assistant and program coordinator to help Dartmouth College students grow their design skills ### Founder and Advisor @ Dartmouth Design Collective Jan 2019 – Jan 2021 | Hanover, New Hampshire Our mission is to unlock the creative potential of the Dartmouth community through hands-on collaboration, skill-sharing, and mentorship in design thinking. I laid the foundations of the Dartmouth Design Collective as a way to organically create a support system for student designers and continued providing mentorship to the executive board for a year after I graduated. ### Design Lead @ DALI Lab Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | Hanover, New Hampshire ∙ Manage learning and mentoring initiatives for 25 designers across 12 projects ∙ Create initiatives to support the design workflow in the lab, monitor the completion of milestones and facilitate communication between designers on different teams ### Designer @ DALI Lab Jan 2017 – Jan 2020 | Hanover, New Hampshire ∙ Created digital solutions for 7 client projects over the course of 2 years in close collaboration with software engineers ∙ Collaborated with stakeholders such as Tuck School of Business and the Dartmouth Entrepreneurial Network ### UI/UX Designer: 6AM Health @ DALI Lab Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Hanover ∙ Led the digital transformation of 6 AM Health, a Boston-based start-up reshaping eating habits for healthy food ∙ Designed an end-to-end MVP for the mobile experience in 10 weeks, working part-time alongside 2 other designers ∙ Coordinated user testing sessions to inform the iteration of the user flow which significantly improved usability ### Project Manager & UI/UX Designer: Pitchback @ DALI Lab Jan 2017 – Jan 2017 | Hanover, New Hampshire • Coordinated a team of 6 developers and designers in building Pitchback, an AI platform for users to practice their public speaking skills with the latest technology from IBM ∙ Led the end-to-end product design process and delivered an interactive prototype • Improved team accountability and performance by 25% through initiating the use of ZenHub tracking • Conducted user research and testing with 50 students to inform next steps for development ### Cognitive Science Honors Research Assistant @ Dartmouth Social Neuroscience L Jan 2018 – Jan 2020 | Hanover, NH ∙ Completed honors thesis analyzing the way stereotypes are implicitly formed in the brain using fMRI ∙ Studied human thinking and behavior in social settings with advanced statistical methods and cutting-edge brain mapping technology ### UI/UX Design Intern @ Ondas Medellin Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Antioquia Area, Colombia ∙ Independently re-designed the website for the launch of a Spanish school ∙ Revamped the user experience for navigation and course registration ∙ Conducted in-depth competitive analysis and user research that led to the successful positioning of the online identity of the program ### UI/UX Design Course Teaching Assistant @ Dartmouth Computer Science Department Jan 2019 – Jan 2019 | Hanover, New Hampshire ∙ Collaborated closely with Prof. Lorie Loeb and Design Manager Natalie Svoboda to pilot the first time the class was offered at Dartmouth ∙ Guided students through the life cycle of digital product design ∙ Provided individualized support for teams developing digital solutions to problems on campus and beyond ### Design Thinking Teaching Assistant @ Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth Jan 2017 – Jan 2019 | Hanover, New Hampshire • Reinforced core principles of the design thinking process through weekly office hours and workshops with 50 students • Worked closely with Professors Robbie and Korsunkiy and the TA team to brainstorm ideas for the course and create new learning materials • Delivered a comprehensive beginner's guide to Adobe Photoshop ### Product Designer @ Social impact Practicum Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Hanover, New Hampshire ∙ Created a personalized product and experience for a student on the autism spectrum to motivate long-term learning and delight ∙ Applied the design thinking methodology and the latest research insights from cognitive psychology ### User Research Intern @ National Research Group Jan 2018 – Jan 2018 | Greater Los Angeles Area ∙ Presented practical recommendations for combating the misrepresentation of minorities in media based on data from 500 online respondents as part of my culminating project ∙ Delivered 15+ qualitative and quantitative user research reports for the development strategies of 5 of the largest software and media client companies ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/ancabalaceanu --- Source: https://flows.cv/ancablceanu JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/ancablceanu/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-05