Content leader · Strategy queen · Accessibility advocate
12 years of bringing clarity to complicated content
I'm a life-long writer and lover of content, a strategist, an accessibility advocate, and a gifted researcher with a career built around one thing: making complex ideas easier to understand, wherever they may appear.
What it’s like to work with me
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“Cate is a wonderful person to work with. She doesn't just get the work done, but makes sure to enable teams by creating documents that will align members and product make hand-offs easier. Her advocacy for accessibility and concern for the user experience makes her a thoughtful team member.”
Nat Shoemaker
Content Designer, Cisco -
“Cate is a thoughtful, insightful UX professional and I counted on her to provide world-class content and UX feedback for our platforms. I especially appreciated Cate's keen ability to cut through the noise and to anticipate issues in the user's journeys before we launched new features, and her tireless advocacy for user experience, understanding and accessibility. ”
Heather Howell
Product Owner, Cisco -
“Cate is a gem of a person and a smart, diligent, thorough and professional ux content designer. I worked with her on introducing AI to the workforce and always appreciated her depth of thought and deep expertise on content.”
Areebah Anjani
AI Experience Reseach Lead, Cisco
The long version
I spent ten years writing and managing content in retail marketing — webpages, blogs, white papers, email campaigns, catalogs, digital ads, radio and video scripts, national campaigns — at senior and manager levels. That decade taught me how content behaves across channels, audiences, and business goals.
I brought the same curiosity to content design. Most recently, as Senior Content Designer at Cisco, I led content strategy and UX writing across employee platforms, internal selling tools, and AI-enabled product experiences: the intranet homepage redesign, the Apps page, search inside OneSearch, and content architecture templates other teams still use.
Accessibility is a throughline, not an add-on. I've supported accessibility improvements across Cisco's employee experiences and spoke on the main track at Cisco's d.Zone design conference.
The range has one practical benefit: I know how to become an expert in something I don't know yet. I've written about cars, bicycles, art supplies, and enterprise technology, and I'm comfortable saying I don't know. That's usually when the real fun begins.
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+78% engagement
Cisco intranet homepage — 90,000+ employees, 1M+ monthly visits. Cisco IT Innovation Award.
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85% task success
Satisfaction at 95% after the same redesign.
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4% failure rate
On a complex data-transfer tool, with 83% satisfaction — from clearer instructions alone.
Off the clock
I’m what some call “an old soul.” I enjoy doing genealogy research, watching historical dramas, trying vintage and international recipes, and spending time in nature with fresh air and beautiful views. I think sunshine can heal a rough day and that a cup of hot tea is a good substitute when its cloudy.
Where’s home?
Beautiful and sprawling Raleigh, North Carolina. I’m remote-first, but open to hybrid options within Wake County. I’m comfortable and familiar with working across time zones and happy to travel for workshops.