I'm Leslie Lopes — a designer who's spent her career figuring out why things don't work and fixing them.

My experience now lives in product design and UX, but that's less a destination than the result of following curiosity across a lot of different problems. I don't come into an industry with pretense. I come in wanting to understand — the systems, the constraints, the people—and then translate all of that into something a customer or user can actually use.

I spent 16 years as a consultant with no ceiling on what I could take on. The deliverables started as design, but over time they grew into strategy, positioning, and business model thinking. I've worked across healthcare, engineering, transportation, acoustics, and even mycelium remediation (Just ask if you want me to nerd out and explain). What those industries have in common is complexity — and clients who needed someone to untangle it with them, not just make it look good.

I migrated into UX naturally, because I realized I'd been doing the work for years. In marketing, I was always focused on the gap between a great product and a customer who didn't know how to use it. Empathy, research, and a clear point of view—that combination is what helped me maintain client relationships for over a decade.

That foundation is what brought me to Cardinal Health. The idea of helping healthcare providers do their jobs more easily felt like the right application of everything I'd built. I joined to lead a design organization — 15 people, 7 product squads, a platform consolidation that touched every pharmacist in their ordering system. The design problems were complex. The "people" problems were more interesting.

My background runs wider than most — Before consulting, I was in broadcast production, Emmy-nominations for production and design (all be it, local Emmy), agency work, which means I've had to think about motion, brand, and systems from a lot of different angles. That range still shows up in how I approach problems. This is what has made me a well-rounded leader.

I live in Powell, Ohio. My clients and colleagues have always been spread across the country and the world, so remote collaboration is just how I work, not an adjustment I had to make.

When I'm not working, I'm usually outside—paddleboarding with my dog Ginger, who has strong opinions about pace and direction.