HEAL

The HEALing Communities Study (HCS) was an $87 million NIH-funded initiative designed to dramatically reduce opioid overdose deaths across 66 communities in Kentucky, Massachusetts, New York, and Ohio.

Year

Stand-alone website. 76 pages.

Scope

Google map integration for finding life-saving resources such as narcan and medical facilities. Stigma-senstive design.

Timeline

Live project

Preview

Strategic progressive disclosure and a consistent visual language helped users navigate a vast ecosystem of content. As Lead UX Designer and Brand Implementation Lead, I designed the study's website, the primary digital communication platform for the initiative. It served as the public face of the study and a single, comprehensive source for each community's initiatives, interventions, outcomes, educational resources, and treatment information.

CHALLENGE

Due to the large scale of this project, one of the greatest challenges was navigating the competing perspectives of it's large, multidisciplinary stakeholder group. With input from NIH executives, academic researchers, data coordination centers, and state coalitions, differing opinions about the product's direction were inevitable.

SOLUTION

It wasn't a perfect process, but our disciplined Agile framework gave the product team a consistent way to communicate, gather feedback, and prioritize decisions, keeping the project moving forward while meeting aggressive deadlines. This experience strengthened my ability to stay strategically grounded, clearly articulate a design vision, thoughtfully incorporate stakeholder feedback, and guide teams to trust the process.

RESULT

An intelligent platform that dynamically integrated live data, including Google Maps directing users to nearby, life-saving resources. Following implementation, intervention communities experienced a 104% increase in naloxone distribution, providing strong evidence of meaningful behavioral and systems-level change.

HEAL

CHALLENGE

SOLUTION

RESULT

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