Biography

Rita Lee Information Design Consultant Rita helps organizations to clarify their thinking and explain their ideas. Summary Rita Lee has been an information designer for over two decades. She is often referred to as a thought-partner, because she helps clients to think through complex situations, and then she designs appropriate communication pieces that explain the ideas that result from this work. She uses her design and management experience to consult for businesses, non-profits, and academia. Rita has been in business for herself since 2002. She is the owner of Rita Lee Information Design and Planning. History Rita started her career in 1988 as a graphic designer at Agnew Moyer Smith Inc. (now known as ThoughtForm Design), in Pittsburgh PA. For the next 14 years Rita held many roles, from staff designer to project manager. She worked with several clients, including Steelcase, McDonalds, and Procter and Gamble. Toward the end of her tenure at Agnew Moyer Smith, she was the primary client liaison for McDonalds Corporation. In this role, she managed a team of 20 people and provided design oversight for 30 different training and communication projects. This work accounted for close to half of the annual revenues for her firm during that time period. Consulting Rita became an independent consultant in 2002. Since then, she has worked on a wide array of projects, including a user m anual for the Radio Shack VEX robotics toy, presentations for the Section of Invertebrate Zoology at Carnegie Museum of Natural History, and recently a new website for the Source for Learning, called Gettysburg by the Numbers. She has also continued to do work for McDonalds, including development of training guides for the McCaf coffee bar, McDonalds Drive-thru redesign, and Front Counter procedures. Rita has deep experience working on management-related projects, including several performance and leadership development communications for McDonalds Global Talent and Human Resources groups, Gensler A rchitects Talent Management, and strategic planning for the School of Design at Carnegie Mellon University. Academia While maintaining her consulting practice, Rita pursued her masters degree in Public Management at Carnegie Mellon Universitys Heinz College. She graduated in 2007. She also holds her design degree from the School of Design at CMU, and served the school for several years as an adjunct design instructor. Ritas combination of design and management expertise helped her to assume the role of Director of Strategic Initiatives for the School of Design for a two-year period (2010- 2012) during which she implemented the programs identified in the strategic plan that she wrote for the school. Now Rita returned to consulting full-time for her business in 2012, and currently works for several clients from her home office in Pittsburgh, PA.