# Aynne Valencia- Brooks > Strategic thinking, Creative Direction and storytelling to move business to the agentic, assistive, anticipatory, and agentive. Author of Designing Interfaces 3 Location: San Francisco Bay Area, United States Profile: https://flows.cv/aynne Consultant, Design Director. Strategic thinking, Creative Direction and storytelling to move business to the agentic, assistive, anticipatory, and agentive. Author of Designing Interfaces 3 ## Work Experience ### Professor @ California College of the Arts Jan 2024 – Present | San Francisco, CA ### Associate Professor @ California College of the Arts Jan 2015 – Jan 2024 | San Francisco, California, United States Teaches: • Senior Thesis • Experience Design • Futures Lab with Samsung Research • Visual Interaction Design ### Program Chair @ California College of the Arts Jan 2015 – Jan 2021 | San Francisco Bay Area Led one of the nation’s top interaction design programs while building a high-performance creative organization. Academic and administrative leadership for CCA's Interaction Design Undergraduate Program. Recruited, led, and managed 27+ full-time and adjunct faculty from leading technology and design organizations Directed strategic planning and budget management, including full curriculum redesign Grew program enrollment 40% through program strategy and marketing initiatives Implemented data-driven evaluation frameworks for program planning and decision-making Built industry partnerships with Oracle, Google, Medtronic, Adobe, Visa, and Vitra to deliver real-world product design collaborations Sponsored Studios: Future of Work studio - SwissNext, CCA, Vitra Oracle Design + CCA Design for Trust Sponsored Studio Medtronic + CCA Diabetes Monitoring Sponsored Studio Samsung R&D + CCA Future of Home Sponsored Studio Google Digital Wellness + CCA XD Studio ### Design Consultant @ Avalen Jan 2005 – Present | San Francisco Bay Area I work with start ups to Fortune 500 companies on strategic design projects. From designing entire complex enterprise products to marketing campaigns to staffing up and training design teams. Most recent projects include: A risk and rehabilitation feature for an AI SaaS platform applying artificial intelligence and computer vision to critical infrastructure systems. A concept design for emergency management system, applying data science, and product leadership to define product vision to address complex technical, policy, and human-experience challenges. Audio and location based audio social history tours ### Design Director @ City and County of San Francisco Jan 2019 – Jan 2020 | San Francisco Bay Area Directed UX and design operations for SF.gov during the COVID-19 response, delivering accessible information and services to millions of residents. The Director of the Design Team comprises experienced UX designers, researchers, service designers, and content strategists. • Head of the design team • Led recruiting and selection processes for design positions • Defined and enforced Design standards and practices for the Digital Services Team • Developed policies for accessibility of applications and ensure that policy is followed within Digital Services and shared and implemented citywide Projects: • Creation of the Workers and Family First Program • Service design and Online application and appointment booking experience design of the CityTestSF, Citywide COVID19 Testing sites. • introduction of social media promotion for building awareness of city services • Way-finding designed a site for people experiencing homelessness to shelter in place during the COVID Pandemic ### Curriculum Designer and Instructor @ General Assembly Jan 2013 – Jan 2014 | San Francisco, CA ### Associate Creative Director @ R/GA Jan 2012 – Jan 2013 | San Francisco, CA ### Service design lead @ Fjord, Part of Accenture Song Jan 2011 – Jan 2012 ### Experience Design Lead for Cisco Consumer Products. @ Cisco Jan 2009 – Jan 2011 | San Francisco • Lead hardware UI design for Flip Camera products • Managed design vendor relations • Coordinated the successful integration of interaction design, visual design and asset production efforts, managed vendor relationship for hardware user interface, coordinated between web and software design teams, customer advocacy, legal, product development, marketing, mechanical engineering, packaging and industrial design teams. - Flip Camera - Consumer Products strategy ### Digital Product Design Director @ AKQA Jan 2006 – Jan 2009 | San Francisco Bay Area • Design Direction for the successful launch of McDonald’s URL, a platform that services over 125 countries and 28 languages • Led design efforts for several new product concepts • Direction of experience design and visual design for Visa Business Network launch • Participated in business development, client pitches including successfully landing new and returning client business. Clients: • McDonalds Digital Platform • Nike Women • McDonalds Mobile Strategy • Visa Global Marketing Strategy • Visa Small Business Strategy • Microsoft - Pioneer Studios ### Experience design lead @ Yahoo Jan 2005 – Jan 2006 | Sunnyvale, CA Product design lead Yahoo Groups Platform Design ### Product Designer III @ Microsoft Jan 2003 – Jan 2005 Microsoft New Consumer Products Incubation • Patents for the physical input and interaction models for a new consumer product concept now publicly known as Surface. • Participated and drafted user research efforts and methods including comprehensive ethnographic studies, and designed music player functionality. • Designed the shell design (OS) for the first version product demonstration and designed applications used for testing gesture input methods. Products: • Microsoft Home Broadband Gateway • Microsoft Messenger “Push to Talk” functionality • Surface Table ### Product Designer @ Microsoft Jan 2001 – Jan 2003 | Greater Seattle Area Microsoft Consulting Services Creative A member of a team that dealt directly with clients of Microsoft to create appropriate design for various platforms. Interacted closely with development teams, project management, and client’s internal teams to develop and deliver solutions. Products: • Wachovia Bank’s Customer Support & Management System for Wachovia’s call center • Verizon’s Customer Support and Management System for their central call center • Microsoft’s Customer Support and Management System for worldwide call centers Clients: • State of Kentucky • Wachovia Bank • Pfizer • Microsoft • Microsoft Project • Verizon ## Education ### Master of Arts - MA in Design & Anthropology San Francisco State University ### Product Design Domus Academy ### Bachelor's degree in Design (New Media Studies), Art History California State University-San Bernardino ### Graphic Design FIDM ## Contact & Social - LinkedIn: https://linkedin.com/in/aynne - Website: https://www.avalen.com --- Source: https://flows.cv/aynne JSON Resume: https://flows.cv/aynne/resume.json Last updated: 2026-04-05