Aloha. I’m so glad you stopped by.

I’m a hapa girl. That means a mixture of a whole ‘lotta things. Chinese + Romanian + Scottish, I was born and raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i. While I moved around—my husband, son, cat, doggo, and I now hang our keys in mountainous San Luis Obispo, California.

My favorite part isn’t just year-round vitamin D. It’s that storytelling is in everything I do.

I was most recently a Content Design Manager at Instagram (2022-2023), helping oversee the Reels end-to-end experience—with a focus on Audio, AR, and Content Creation. And I was a Content Design Manager for Facebook app (2020-2022), where I helped build safe, meaningful communities for Groups and Events. I directly managed dozens of Content Designers and partnered with XFN leadership, including Product Management, Engineering, UX Design, UX Research, and Data Science.

Previously, I had the privilege of being the UX Writing Manager and Senior UX Writer at Mindbody. I managed writers and mentored designers, developed the company brand strategy, trained over 800 employees on voice and tone, and built an Ideation Program that generated over 1,500 concepts. 

Oh, gosh… After hours?

My first loves are reviewing books, thrifting, embroidery, writing poetry, performing spoken word, and public speaking. Before my tech days, I started off as an instructor at California Polytechnic State University and at the San Luis Obispo Juvenile Hall, where I developed creative writing programs: Inside Voices (2013), HerVoice (2015), and Summer of Sisterhood (2017).

I earned my Master of Arts in English from California Polytechnic State University and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Women’s Studies from Loyola University New Orleans.

Personal beliefs are the Oxford comma and Kona coffee. Personal pronouns are she, her, they, and them.

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What people have said…

In tech 💻

“Cait is a very welcoming, inclusive and warm partner—and I’ve really appreciated her transparency and openness. Cait was very honest about the state of the team, things that have gone well and areas of opportunity. These sorts of conversations have been very helpful for me as I’ve tried to really change up the way the org has been functioning.” —Product Management Director

“We can all learn from Cait’s mastery of organization. I’m constantly blown away by her well-designed templates for every occasion and have benefited from them multiple times.” —Content Design Manager

“Cait Emma is a galvanizing force to bring large teams together through All Hands and other collaborative moments, making the remote work feel less remote and building a sense of team unity. “—Senior User Experience Researcher 

“Cait designed and organized a critical cross-team workshop. She helped the team outline opportunities to build a cohesive product and identify aspirational goals for the experience. This work was foundational to our ecosystem workstream and will be instrumental in roadmap planning.” —Product Design Lead

In academia 📚

“Cait was the kind of teacher I won’t forget. She was patient and helpful, and not only did she help me understand how to write … she helped me understand what I wanted to say.” — Writing student

“She’s so much fun and made the classes even better. We taught writing together and I could always run ideas by her and improve my own lessons. Cait is seriously the best to work with if you want compassion and excitement.” — Cal Poly University Instructor

“I didn’t know I liked writing. I learned a lot of tricks and ways to approach creative writing that I didn’t know before. Cait taught me that and feel proud of what I accomplished in her class.” —Writing student