Sarah has been the d.school's Executive Director since 2014. She leads a community of practitioners, academics, and other innovators to advance the widespread use of design and help people create new possibilities. She’s the author of Creative Acts for Curious People: How to Think, Create, and Lead in Unconventional Ways (Ten Speed Press, 2021).
Sarah sees the d.school as a vital hub for innovation and design work on wide ranging topics: from health to civil society to education and much more. Under her leadership d.school has explored multiple future visions of undergraduate education culminating in a multi-day exhibition complete with a time machine, published a series of 12 books on contemporary design topics, created experimental learning formats, and renewed and re-launched two design degrees. Sarah currently teaches on the history and ethics of design, and mentors students especially interested in applying their design skills to oceans-related innovation.
Sarah serves as a Trustee for Rare, the global leader in the application of behavioral science to conservation, and on the Board of Governors of Habib University in Karachi, Pakistan. Among other creative pursuits, she spends her free time on underwater and wildlife photography. She lives in San Francisco.
Sarah holds an MBA from Stanford's Graduate School of Business and a BA in history from Oberlin College. In 2023-24 she was a Global Fellow at St. Andrews University in Scotland.