East Coast hustle, West Coast innovation…

I'm Maya. I’m a communications and experience design leader, and I've been doing this work for over 15 years — blending the strategic drive of my East Coast upbringing with the creative ingenuity of the Bay Area, which I've called home for over a decade. What drives me is a simple conviction: how people experience something matters just as much as the thing itself.

That belief anchors my work. Over my career, I've partnered with senior leaders and cross-functional teams across consumer and mission-driven organizations to shape communications and design experiences that align vision with perception — especially during moments when trust and credibility are being tested.

I operate at the intersection of leadership, culture, communications, and experience, with a background spanning executive engagement, internal communications, organizational storytelling, and large-scale experience design — always grounded in how people actually experience the work.

I'm also the founder of Ivywood Group, an image architecture firm for women executives and founders. Ivywood applies the same principles I bring to organizational work — designing how you're experienced — to individual leaders, helping women design their image, narrative, and presence with intention, so that how they're experienced matches the authority they've already earned.

Outside of my professional work, I'm a dedicated community advocate and proud member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority, Incorporated®, currently serving as Northern California Cluster Coordinator for the Far Western Region, where I support members and communities across the Bay Area and Northern California. I hold a Bachelor of Arts in English from Northeastern University in Boston.

I bring a calm, considered approach to complex environments, guided by the belief that clarity is a form of respect, restraint is a leadership skill, and people are at the center of every story I tell.