Director of UX Research
Expedia Group
Linguistics, Ph.D. and M.A.
Jess White earned her Ph.D. in Linguistics from UT Austin before transitioning into UX research. Her career has spanned both enterprise and consumer domains, including serving as a partner at a UX consultancy, working as researcher at Vrbo and leading UX Research at Grubhub. She currently works as a UX Research Director at Expedia Group, where she applies her expertise in understanding user behavior and needs to shape product strategy and design. Jess's linguistics background provides unique insights into how underlying patterns shape intuitive user experiences. Her current focus is exploring the fundamental human needs and mental models that should anchor generative UX—systems where finite design principles create infinite, contextually-relevant experiences.