Summary

Matthew Irvine

Senior Software Engineer at Google

"I worked with Maira as a software engineering manager at Google. Most recently, Maira has worked as the primary UX designer on a major multi-quarter project my team is undertaking to launch a new product to our users, with Maira designing the Google Cloud Console web frontend for the product. She self-directed her work, working directly with a senior software engineer tech lead and others on my engineering team to understand the technical details of what we are building and ensure that our work would support the frontend's needs.

I was particularly impressed by Maira's ability to self-direct her contributions and pull in the needed stakeholders from this project which involved many different teams - my team, a frontend software engineering team, product management, and others. Maira really deserves the credit for driving this effective collaboration across teams."

Jadie Oh

UX Lead, GCS & Storage Management at Google

"Maira makes sure the design delivery is complete with details and edge cases ironed out. When there are unsolved issues, she follows up with cross functional partners and brings back design solutions. In certain cases, she helped cross functional team to find flaws in the original intent, and course correct ourselves by communicating rationales effectively."

Nicholas Kelman

Senior Software Engineer at Google

"I have always known Maira to be dependable and hardworking. Maira is demonstrably passionate about building intuitive user interfaces with an emphasis on accessibility. She supplements her work with the latest recommendations about how to build user friendly interfaces. Maira is easy to work with and accommodating when technical limitations require alternative designs."

Josh Hirshfeld

Senior UX Writer and Content Designer at Google

"Throughout the Google Cloud Appliances project, Maira demonstrated a keen understanding of user-centered design principles and a knack for translating complex requirements into clear, intuitive designs. She excels at working with stakeholders to understand a project’s needs and constraints, always willing to ask questions to clarify any information in need of further refinement."

Dan Zaharia

User Experience Designer at Google

"During Maira’s time with us, I observed her approaching her work in a highly collaborative manner, building trust with cross-functional stakeholders, and fearlessly asking apt questions about her product and its users. For example, Maira’s familiarity with coding gives her the language with which to collaborate and support her development teams during implementation of her designs."

Akeem Nicholas

Software Engineer at Google

"From the very first project we worked on together, I knew we would get along well. Maira’s positive attitude and hard-working nature made it very easy for us to collaborate and build intuitive User Interfaces (UIs) for our young Google Cloud product in an intentional and productive way. Her ability to quickly understand a use case / user need and design a multitude of design solutions that take into account the technical complexity and necessary implementation time of each makes her stand out from other UX designers I have worked with previously. I also admire Maira’s willingness to ask important questions in meetings with key stakeholders, open communication style with the entire, cross-functional team as to her progress and blockers, and passion for building accessibility into our UIs as a top priority."

Chris Gillis

Senior UX Designer at Activate Care

"I mentored Maira in the Bloc UX program where she showed real strong work ethic. She has a thirst for knowledge and understanding around Accessibility that I have not seen in any other student. Maira is professional in our meetings and has great communication skills. Her understanding of the Design Process, Accessibility and UX Research would make her a great asset to any product team."

Christophe Drayton

Lead UX Professor at City University of New York

"Maira was my mentee during her UX/UI Design Course at Thinkful. Since the very beginning, Maira proved that she has an eye for details: she is genuinely interested into getting to know a topic to the full extent, and always have remarkable insights. Maira is a delight to work with, as she is organized and positive. She is highly proficient in User Research, Visual Design, and User Testing. Also, and more importantly, she has a keen and kind eye for Accessibility. She will be, without any reserve, an asset to your company."

Melanie Grant

Assistant legal Counsel at Illinois State Board Of Education

"Maira first volunteered with Equip for Equality from December 2016 through April 2017, and during that time period, I was Maira’s direct supervisor. She worked on individual client cases for families with distinct special education related needs. Maira conducted intake interviews, drafted advice letters, review records, and became many clients’ primary contact. Maira is dedicated, passionate, creative, hard-working, thoughtful, and willing to try new things. Although Maira was a volunteer, she often spent long hours in the office to ensure that our clients were supported, even though she received no compensation for her work. I was confident that our clients were well supported with Maira working on their cases."

Sílvia Neves Mayer Zlojutro

Front-end Web Developer

"I worked under Maira's leadership at the State Prosecution Office (Parana/Brazil), and I can confidently say that she is an exceptional leader. Maira's outstanding time management skills were truly remarkable. She consistently demonstrated an ability to handle multiple tasks simultaneously, ensuring that all deadlines were met without compromising the quality of her work. Maira would always go above and beyond, often devoting time to study and research in order to present new and innovative solutions for the reports she produced, and to pass on her knowledge to us. As a leader, Maira fostered a positive and pleasant working environment, actively engaging with her colleagues, listening to their ideas and concerns, and providing guidance and mentorship when needed. Her excellent communication skills and friendly nature made her approachable and easy to talk to, creating a positive work environment."