I have a passion for art, creativity and technology, but at the core of my professional life, I am an integrator. I utilize the fundamentals of program management in order to harmonize divergent, multi-disciplinary fields. I link dichotomies between digital and physical, software and hardware, theory and execution.

My work is driven by a love of people; mentoring individuals, bringing teams together to solve problems, and creating products that enrich people's lives. I find it thrilling to use technology as a catalyst for this enrichment. I've explored advances in fashion, gaming, product design & consumer applications as tools for precisely this. Each field is distinct, but not competing. Each adds to the eco-system of that defines our life, our personality, and our interests as humans. Each provides both distinct and shared threads that feed into my perspective as a designer & project leader.

To design products that go beyond existence - that truly redefine a person's life or interaction with the rest of the world - requires having a broad perspective. By establishing roots in a variety of disciplines, I'm able to tackle engineering or design problems from a broad point of view.

I initially worked in software, designing web sites for clients, and developing casual games for a variety of audiences. I worked for three years at Shockwave.com, where I collaborated with teams of game developers to create innovative web-based and downloadable PC games. We developed strong communities of users, centered around the games they played; from a variety of casual multiplayer titles (like a Pictionary-style title named InkLink), to the daily Jigsaw puzzles, which were created from user-submitted images.

In my current job at Apple, however, I work intimately with hardware and integrating cross-functional group needs. I drive teams of engineers (mechanical, electrical, manufacturing, test) to iterate, create & manufacture high-quality consumer devices that are sold to millions of consumers.

Together, my experiences have led me to have a clear grasp of the holistic process of product design. I love working with engineers to rethink design, tying it back to the consumer at every level. It's not just about the emotional experience of using the end product, but about every facet along the design path. Each decision establishes how the product performs and holds up over it's life span & ultimately how the consumer embeds it into their own life.

I am passionate about creating products for real people; products we attach ourselves to emotionally & physically, in leisure & work. My goals moving forward in my career are to take my experiences and apply them towards new teams, projects and environments. I want to help establish intelligent processes for the creation of user-centric products. I want to tie the finest ingredients together (superior project management, mechanical, hardware & software design and intelligent manufacturing) into this creation process, to seamlessly create to objects that will enrich our lives.

Master of Science in Media Arts and Sciences, June 2003. Researcher at the intersection of visual design fields (graphic, fashion, film) and engineering (computer science, mechanical, material). Graduate thesis focused on creating interactive garments, as well as developing a new design tool for non-technical fashion designers, enabling them to create their own interactive garments and designs.

Masters Thesis: Embedded Systems for Computational Garment Design
Graduate Advisor: Prof. John Maeda, president of the Rhode Island School of Design. Formerly director of the
   MIT Media Lab's Aesthetics + Computation Group.
Research: http://acg.media.mit.edu/people/megan/

Graduated Magna Cum Laude, June 1997.
G.P.A. 4.24 / 4.0 (unweighted G.P.A. 3.92 / 4.0). Rank 7 / 329.

March 2007-current. Engineering Program Manager. Overall program lead responsible for the execution and development of new iPod products. I work intimately with a variety of groups (HW, SW, Operations, etc) to facilitate discussion and drive the team towards smart design choices. I'm responsible for ensuring the product meets quality standards before it reaches the hands of the consumer. I set the overall rhythm of the project schedules, track the larger team's progress, and aggressively move us towards our end goals while weighing any potential risks along the way. The job requires frequent travel to China to conduct development builds and train the CM's for ramp. Successfully launched the new "iPod Touch" in 2008 and the "iPod Classic" in 2007.

December 2003-February 2007. Senior Game Producer. In this role, I functioned as project manager, game designer, software developer, & group leader. I worked closely with Marketing to fulfill the needs of our catalog and ultimately our consumer. I managed close relationships with external game developers, and continuously conducted design evaluations of their work with the company's larger goals in mind. I was responsible for some technical implementations required to launch new games on the web site, for management of the site's two largest traffic drivers (Jigsaws, Multiplayer games), and periodically worked as a UI designer or client-side engineer for proprietary games. http://www.shockwave.com

September 2006-March 2007. Designed & built the restaurant's web site & and automatic menu update tool. I worked with the owner to brainstorm and create a design that resonated with their overall style. I also applied their need for long-term site maintenance ease towards the development of a simple yet effective menu updater tool. http://www.rangesf.com

June 2001-August 2001. Graphic design summer intern. Technical and design lead for small start-up loan company. I redesigned and rebuilt the front-end of the company web site to focus on drawing in new users, quickly move them towards initiating a loan process, and smoothly walk them through to the point of sale with little confusion or ambiguity. The design methodology I used for restructuring a very confusing and visually jarring web site was to apply basic principles of layout, balance and color to meet these goals. Also conducted basic user-testing and analysis.

March 2000-September 2000. UROP Undergraduate researcher. Designed ACG Retrospective exhibition for the Herb Lubalin Center of Design and Typography at the Cooper Union School, NYC (September 7-October 14, 2000). http://acg.media.mit.edu/projects/CooperUnion/retrospective/

July 2000. Summer researcher in Shiseido's advertising department. Created interactive Java game for display in the Cyberland portion of Shiseido's web page, with the goal of expressing simplicity and beauty.
http://www.megangabraith.org/shiseido/

September 2002. Presenter and Teacher. Lectured about computational design and technology. Taught a two-day workshop about the fundamentals of computational design, using Nylon, a programming suite for integrating computational graphics, microcontrollers, and sensing technologies (co-developed in 2002 at ACG/MIT).
http://www.a.com.mx