Hello, this is Emme!

I like to think about humans for work and fun.

As a researcher with a diverse background, I learned that the best things tend to happen at intersections; where rigor meets empathy, insights meet intuition, and tech meets thoughtfulness.

My mission is to unearth human stories and place it at the heart of data-driven insights, guiding the design of solutions that bring ease and purpose, past barriers, to our lives.

After all, I think every story is worth telling: the ones as big as an exhausting daily commute home, to ones as small as the act of pushing a button on your phone.

As a researcher with a diverse background, I learned that the best things tend to happen at intersections; where rigor meets empathy, insights meet intuition, and tech meets thoughtfulness.

My mission is to unearth human stories and place it at the heart of data-driven insights, guiding the design of solutions that bring ease and purpose, past barriers, to our lives.

After all, I think every story is worth telling: the ones as big as an exhausting daily commute home, to ones as small as the act of pushing a button on your phone.

It all starts with my childhood love for stories.

My passion with it spans across mediums, from pages to the screen. I grew up listening to whimsical tales spun by my father before bed, writing silly stories with and for friends, watching films in different languages, reading stacks of novels and comic books, and improvising with friends on tabletop game sessions. I feel most alive when I get to experience a truly great story, no matter the platform.

It taught me that we are all driven by stories with humans at its core—things that stir, move, and inspire us. Experiencing great things push us to create great things in turn, for others and for ourselves.

I believe that the exact same principle makes good research good: it makes people care. It informs decisions that move the needle and create impact in ripples. Good research brings stories to light, and these are stories that people listen to.

Not only that I carry this belief in my work, but I strive every day to be better at it: to tell a powerful story of my own.

That love carried me to where I am now.

My fascination with humans and their stories brought me to major in Psychology in undergrad. I wanted to be a clinical therapist at first, and did my thesis on the mental health and well-being of the Indonesian elderly as well as their familial relationships with their children.

Then, my first job landed me in a user research role for one of the fastest-growing startups in the country, and it blew my whole world open.

I discovered then how stories are present everywhere. There is a story behind every insight, an eureka moment waiting for the dots to connect; impactful stories for an eager audience. I found a certain satisfaction in figuring things out and inspecting a problem from all sides, poking it curiously, wondering what ways I could pry this thing open.

I brought this love with me as I went through grad school. The Human-Computer Interaction Institute at Carnegie Mellon was where I again saw this lesson manifest in projects I took and people I meet—a year there was an intersection of expertise, respect, passion, and continuous learning, where I heard stories from amazing friends as I let them hear mine.

And that’s how I want to spend the next chapter of my career: do research from the heart to keep telling great stories.

Outside of work, I love making things.

I write for fun and take tons of pictures of my friends and things around me.

If not, you will find me watching too many movies, cooking hearty meals, reading one good manga or books at a time, giving my four dogs a lot of love, and occasionally, sit down and play some D&D.