University of Michigan-Flint
Digital strategy, UX & information architecture, creative direction, content strategy & project leadership

The transformation of the University of Michigan-Flint website is one of the projects I am most proud of in my career. I led the migration and redesign of more than 130 departmental websites from Drupal to WordPress, completing the project in nine months while working directly with departments across the university’s five schools and colleges.

The project began long before anything was built in WordPress. I met individually with departments to explain the process, understand their needs, and make sure they remained involved in decisions about their content. Because the new model would change how departments managed their websites, maintaining their sense of ownership and building trust throughout the transition was especially important to me.

I then reviewed the content of more than 130 existing sites, some containing 50 to 60 pages or more. I documented and organized the content, identified outdated or redundant information, and developed a new information hierarchy for each site. I presented those recommendations back to departments and worked with them throughout the process to revise, rewrite, and reorganize content before rebuilding their sites.

At the start of the project, WordPress was new to me. I taught myself the platform and its backend while simultaneously leading the migration. When the new site required functionality or custom components beyond what WordPress provided, I directed two ITS colleagues on the design and functionality I needed, and they developed the technical solutions to bring those ideas to life.

The project ultimately brought together strategy, user experience, information architecture, content, design, accessibility, SEO, technology, and extensive collaboration across the university. Following the transformation and continued optimization, average monthly website traffic grew from approximately 15,000 users to more than 70,000, with stronger organic search visibility supporting the university’s broader digital marketing efforts.