Natalie Glatzel
Internal Affairs Innovator
Before Natalie landed at the d.school, she thought design was just a word that denoted something beautiful to look at. That perception was completely shattered no sooner then when she walked through the glass doors of building 550, into the delight and the chaos that is design thinking. Since then, she has been soaking up design thinking like SPF 45 on a hot summer day. For her, it’s become a new way of thinking about the world and finding solutions to real-life issues in a visionary and human-centered way.
Natalie loves being a member of the services team at the d.school and does everything from financial transactions, to marketing for classes, to photographing workshops. She tries to bring creativity and innovation to every aspect of her work, whether that means prototyping ways to encourage staff to turn in receipts; participating in a d.school class project to build community in a multi-department building; or creating ways to showcase our amazing students. As a literature major from Cal, she is also interested in the evolution of stories over time and she is excited about the idea of capturing the d.school at different moments and sharing those stories in new and exciting ways.
No matter what she’s doing on any particular day, Natalie will be quick to tell you that she works with an amazing team of people and that this is the best job she’s ever had. She is thrilled to be a part of something she thinks is vitally important, both to education and to the world at large.
When you can’t find Natalie at the d.school, she’s likely out exploring: whether that means walking the streets of her family’s history in Glasgow, Scotland, riding a donkey outside the pyramids of Giza, or wandering through her favorite surfing town in Mexico. More locally, you can also find her hiking through the hills of Woodside, driving down Highway 1 on a sunny day, or navigating the menu of the latest restaurant in SF.
