Kathryn Grayson Nanz is a Developer Advocate, Front End Engineer & UI Designer, blog writer, conference speaker, and lifelong learner.

In 2013, I graduated with a Fine Arts degree and took my first job as Junior Graphic Designer at a small, boutique ad agency. While there, my Creative Director told me to never let anyone else find out that I knew how to code – he warned me that if they knew I could do it, I'd be stuck doing it forever and never get to focus on print design again. I ignored his warning; turns out, he was completely right, but I've never been happier.

I currently work as a Developer Advocate for KendoReact at Progress Software. I'm on a mission to help people build beautiful and user-friendly interfaces, design and maintain component libraries, and stop their back-end devs from writing any more CSS.

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Blog Highlights:

Speaking Engagements:

  • Speaker, ReactNext 2022 (Tel Aviv): "DataViz Design Tips: Making Your Data Make Sense"
  • Speaker, DevUp 2022 (St. Louis): "Learn Enough Design to be Dangerous" and "Ditch the Media Queries: Modern CSS Replacements for Better Responsive Code"
  • Speaker, Web Directions: Hover 2022 (Virtual): "Ditch the Media Queries: Modern CSS Replacements for Better Responsive Code"
  • Speaker, Women In Technology Summit 2022 (Virtual): "Learn Enough Design to be Dangerous"
  • Speaker, React Miami 2022 (Miami): "Learn Enough Design to be Dangerous"
  • Speaker, CodeStock 2022 (Knoxville): "Learn Enough Design to be Dangerous" and "Ditch the Media Queries: Modern CSS Replacements for Better Responsive Code"
  • Speaker, ReactJS Day 2021 (Virtual): "Configuring Storybook to Create Accessible React Components" Watch the recording, courtesy of GrUSP
  • Speaker, React Europe 2021 (Virtual): "Build Your Own Component Library"
  • Speaker, React Advanced 2021 (Virtual): "Lightning Talk: startTransition in React 18" Watch the recording, courtesy of React Conferences by GitNation
  • Speaker, Connect ReImagine 2021 (Virtual): "Build Your Own Component Library" Watch the recording, courtesy of Women Who Code
  • Speaker, Byteconf React 2020 (Virtual): "Creating a Component Library" Watch the recording, courtesy of Byteconf React
  • Speaker, Frontrunners React 2019 (Washington DC): "Creating a Component Library"
  • Speaker, Drupal Camp 2018 (Asheville): "Overcoming Impostor Syndrome"
  • Keynote Speaker, Litmus Live 2017 (Boston, London, and San Francisco): "Overcoming Impostor Syndrome" Watch the Boston recording, courtesy of Litmus.
  • Speaker, The Email Design Conference 2016 (Boston): "When Graceful Degredation Isn't An Option: Designing Emails for Regulated Industries"