Taurean Jones (MFA 2011) is a Staff UX Manager for Google with over 16 years of experience leading product design, graphic design, and design education. He currently builds and manages a talented team of designers that own various business-critical products in the Kubernetes Engine (GKE)/ Anthos product area for Google Cloud. In addition, he has worked in and released Cloud products that deal with machine learning, artificial intelligence, business intelligence, data preparation, and data migration with some of the top technology companies in the world, including Amazon, Microsoft, and Google. These advanced technologies impact schools, hospitals, businesses, and much more as more industries expand their capabilities through online resources. 

In addition to this technical design work at Google, he is a passionate Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) leader, setting initiatives and driving equitable/inclusive outcomes for underrepresented groups in and outside of Google.

Taurean earned a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in Graphic Design from West Virginia University and a Master of Fine Arts in Design Research and Development from The Ohio State University Department of Design.

Currently, Taurean sits on the board at the University of Washington iSchools advisory board, where he partners with the institution to accelerate the design/ education opportunities for program students. He has also been recognized by the Mmabontle Circle (Botswana philanthropic group) for his contributions to closing the gender equity gap through mentoring young women in tech.

Taurean recently joined Media Producer Justin James Lopez to discuss allyship, mentorship, and representation. Listen to this 30-minute conversation on the Amazon Design site at https://amazon.design/black-stories/black-stories06-taurean-jones.