Mave Houston

Head of UX Research, Inclusive Design and Research & Design
The Walt Disney Company

Mave Houston is the Head of UX Research, Inclusive Design and Research & Design Operations at Disney.Her team includes researchers, designers, and operations specialists for Disney+, Hulu and Star+. Mavebelieves that people find something magical in themselves when consuming stories that reflect relevance totheir lives. Her team facilitates a human centered & inclusive thinking mindset at Disney to inspire and delight customers with content streaming experiences that matter to them.

Dr. Houston’s professional experience includes more than 18 years leading Design and Design Research at companies like Audible, PwC, IBM and Capital One, the latter where she founded a Design Research Program and collection of research labs across the country called USERLabs. She has spoken at several conferences, most notably SXSW, the Nelson Mandela Centenary in Johannesburg, SA, the Women of theWorld Festival in London, Amazon Conflux. and most recently, the BBC’s Digital Planet Podcast. Mave holdsa PhD in Computer Science with a focus in Human Computer Interaction from Auburn University and aBachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from Spelman College.