Mike Monteiro
Design Director
Mike Monteiro
Design Director
Mike brings more than a decade of experience creating outstanding visual and interactive design. He has served as lead visual designer for ReliefWeb, Six Apart, Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and for the Glaucoma Research Foundation. He excels in creating visual interface systems to aid navigation and clarify complex content. He’s also funny.
Mike founded Mule Design in 2001 along with Erika Hall.
Mike received his BA in Fine Art from the Tyler School of Art at Temple University, and his MFA in Graphic Design from University of Texas, Austin.
Erika Hall
Director of Strategy
Erika Hall
Director of Strategy
Erika, a founding partner, has been working in Web design and development since 1995. She directs the research, information architecture, and content strategy practices at Mule.
Erika speaks and writes frequently about the importance of natural language in interface design.
She received her BA in Philosophy from Dartmouth College.
David McCreath
Developer
David McCreath
Developer
David has worked on the web since 1994, pre-dating even Netscape 1.0. In that time he has been a designer, a developer, a programmer, a project manager, and a creative director. His single purpose with every job is to make the web a little more usable and to make it better for the user, and believes the path to this enlightenment is standards-compliant code and semantically sound pages. His understanding of the entire development process helps him bridge gaps between disciplines often found in web development teams.
David received his BFA in Studio Art from the University of Texas, Austin.
Jessie Char
Client Relations
Jessie Char
Client Relations
Before joining Mule, Jessie was a project manager at Magnolia Labs, where she oversaw design and development for iOS applications. She has served as a Genius and QA engineer at Apple and performed various technical roles at Delicious Monster. Jessie believes good design is practical, logical, and fun and that these same principles are applicable to communication with teammates and clients. A job well done isn’t just about a great end product; it’s also about the steps it takes to get there.
Jessie studied Music Performance and Education at Central Washington University and the University of Washington.
Shawna Seth
Project Manager
Shawna Seth
Project Manager
As the lead project manager, Shawna concerns herself primarily with people. She guides clients and Mules alike through each phase of the design process and equips everyone with the necessary tools to make informed decisions. She believes good design is sparked by shared knowledge, clearly stated and agreed-upon goals, and a healthy dose of chocolate.
Before joining the stable in 2009, Shawna was a project manager at SolutionSet where she co-led a year-long rebrand and global marketing campaign for Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business. She honed her friendly phone voice working in public relations and does a mean fouette.
Shawna earned her BA in Sociology with a focus on Media Studies from Vassar College.
Katie Gillum
Lead Researcher
Katie Gillum
Lead Researcher
Katie came to our company after working in Ireland as an educational and advocacy media producer and educator. Partnering with Dublin Apple Regional Training Centre and other local education groups, she gave talks, produced curricula, and lead workshops and courses about digital storytelling and creativity and utilizing digital and social media for non-profit and advocacy work. She has conducted social and health research in a variety of contexts and thrives on understanding the systems that shape and guide human behavior. In addition to her work with us, Katie continues her work as a director and producer of digital video and audio projects with small nonprofits and local artists.
Katie has a BA in Anthropological Sciences with a minor in Creative Writing from Stanford University and a MA in Visual Anthropology-Ethnographic Documentary Film from University of Manchester.
Tina Lee
Content Strategist
Tina Lee
Content Strategist
Tina specializes in identifying the overarching narrative in projects and design concepts. Prior to Mule, she wrangled commas in freshman essays as a writing instructor and served as the web editor for the literary journal Salt Hill. Tina enjoys crafting stories with clear purpose and structure. Her skills include ruling Photo Hunt with eagle-eyed enthusiasm and spotting that extra second space after a period.
Tina received her BA in English and Film/Video Studies from the University of Michigan and her MFA in Creative Writing from Syracuse University.
Jason Permenter
Designer
Jason Permenter
Designer
In his previous career as a volcanologist, Jason studied the highest peaks on Earth. As a designer at Mule, he’s passionate about discovering the very best methods to communicate ideas in clear, compelling, and surprising ways. Jason tends to approach the world of design with a scientific sensibility: freezing it in liquid nitrogen and smashing it on a desk.
Jason trained as a geologist at the College of Charleston, Indiana State University, and the University of Cambridge. He studied design at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco.
Jim Ray
Developer
Jim Ray
Developer
Before coming to Mule, Jim spent a decade in online media as a writer, developer, producer and manager. He’s worked with solo photographers in far off lands, a newspaper in the midwest and one of the most visited news websites in the world. He cracks wise on Twitter and enjoys food.
Jim is a graduate of the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of North Carolina. He learned to love unix, programming and the web on one of the oldest and most venerable web sites still going at ibiblio.org.
Tom Carmony
Designer
Tom Carmony
Designer
Tom has been designing for the web since 1997. After nearly a decade of working independently in his own design practice, Tom was eager for a new challenge and the opportunity to further develop his skills as a part of a larger team. He helps fill a dual role at Mule, not only creating clean, elegant user interfaces but also hand-crafting the standards-compliant code behind those designs.
A self-taught designer, Tom is a former doctoral candidate in clinical psychology and received his MA in psychology from St. John’s University in New York.
Benjamin Nguyen
Crowd Control
Benjamin Nguyen
Crowd Control
As Crowd Control, Benjamin ensures that the office is inhabitable at all times so that the team can work in a (relatively) focused and serene environment. This often includes using his expertise in distracting both dogs and visitors alike.
Before joining Mule Design, Benjamin spent a year writing plays and musicals to teach children English at an orphanage and leper colony in Vietnam. He was also an event coordinator for the residential halls and dorms at UCLA, where he created student programs such as Disneyland scavenger hunts, until he moved up to playing with puppies for a living as a dog groomer. His next big goal in life is to sell bobbleheads of himself once he makes it big on Broadway.
Benjamin received his BS in Physiological Science at UCLA.
Valeda Stull
Interaction Designer
Valeda Stull
Interaction Designer
Valeda joined Mule after working in academia for six years as both a research coordinator and a graduate student—which, thankfully, was a lot more fun than it sounds. At Duke University she helped oversee large-scale NIH-funded clinical trials pertaining to behavioral science and nutrition; later, at UNC Chapel Hill, she studied social informatics, user interface design, and cognitive science. Her professional experience combined with her enthusiasm of research methods and human-computer interaction has put her on the path to do what she really loves: helping to design our interactive experiences to be as usable, meaningful, and delightful as possible.
Valeda received her BA in Linguistics and Communications from Antioch College and is finishing her MS in Information Science at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.
Rupert
Chug
Rupert
Chug
Prior to joining us in 2009, Rupert was running stray in a field near Merced. He is responsible for maintaining a productive, creative office environment and fostering collaboration. Rupert thrives on finding solutions to challenging interpersonal situations and chicken.
Who We Are
We are listeners, questioners, and collaborative problem-solvers. We are passionate advocates for your audience. We are smart, experienced, and polished. We are designers who get things done.
Why We’re Here
We’re out to build a company that succeeds by creating excellent experiences on behalf of good people. As designers, we ask not only how best to solve a problem, but why. We want our work to make a positive difference in the world. And we want to have a good time doing it, too.
