Michelle Peterson

Michelle Peterson serves as a Lecturer at The University of Texas at Austin, teaching 'Topics in User Experience Design: User Research' in Fall 2023 and 2024 terms while maintaining a full-time industry role at Indeed focused on job seeker experience. Her academic affiliation operates concurrently with her industry career spanning Microsoft, Usability Sciences, Dell, and Rackspace.

Her educational credentials include:

• Bachelor of Science (B.S.) from University of Florida
• Master of Science (M.S.) from University of Florida
• Exchange program at Universiteit Utrecht
• Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) from University of Florida
• Post-doctoral research at Carnegie Mellon University

Specializing in User Experience and Cognition, Dr. Peterson bridges academic theory with industrial application through her research interests in Human-Computer Interaction and Usability Engineering. Her professional trajectory demonstrates deep expertise in user research methodologies across enterprise software, e-commerce, and employment platforms, with emphasis on translating cognitive principles into practical design solutions. The Rackspace experience particularly highlights her leadership in scaling UX research operations from individual contributor to multi-disciplinary team builder.

Her current dual-role structure exemplifies industry-academia integration, bringing real-world case studies from Fortune 500 engagements (HP, Dell, SAP, Deloitte, Disney) directly into classroom instruction while maintaining active research contributions through Indeed's product development initiatives.