Sara is a passionate, curious, creative human.

She is an award-winning Creative with two decades of experience in design, leadership, and education. Her Masters from Pratt Institute, fellowship with Milton Glaser and commitment to mission-oriented spaces inform her unique blend of creativity and strategy. She works with brands, businesses and people to uncover untapped potential, realize core values, and create beautiful, tangible spaces for ideas to thrive. Purpose and intention is core to her work.

Through the span of her almost 20 year career she has consistently balanced both scale and depth in her work. She has worked with global brands like Nike, Google, Twitter, HP, Band-Aid, College Board and others to help them show up with a sense of purpose that goes far beyond the functional benefits of the products they offer. She has been part of the core leadership team of a creative digital agency and has spoken at numerous organizations about leadership, design and community. She has served on the selection committee for “The Other Art Fair” with the mission of helping emerging artists gain greater visibility. She has held teaching positions in the US and abroad and along with her creative practice is currently an Adjunct Professor at NYU where she teaches an Innovations in Marketing course.  She is also Co-Founder at Forest & Trees, a consulting firm specializing in guiding purpose-led organizations through transitions.

You’ll find her connecting with people – and connecting dots – wherever deep, heartwarming conversations are to be had. 

Glossary of Terms

We’re in a particularly “word rich” time which comes with some perils; a plethora of wonderful words that mean different things depending on the person, context and industry you are working in. In short, the perfect breeding ground for much confusion. Allow me to provide some clarity for this space. Below is how I think of the language I use in the space I occupy:

  • When working with me you can expect creative problem solving, an organized sensibility, a strong tilt towards excellence, a desire to always learn and a warm personality that tends to bring people together. I believe in showing up with kindness, clarity, and empathy because it makes work and our working lives better.

  • Was brought in as a consultant to work either as the principal designer or given creative ownership to oversee a team on a project.

  • When working in this capacity I have either been the principal designer, created brand identity systems from scratch and rolled them out to global teams, overseen a team of designers, given creative direction, art directed photoshoots and created all material prior to the shoot including shot lists and pre-pro books and been on set depending on the type and scale of project being worked on.

  • I write this somewhat light-heartedly but jokes aside, this has felt like part of my job description for most of my career. I’ve found organizations, brands and individuals deal with a lot of complex emotions as change around their offerings arise. Even well-intentioned, much needed, exciting change can come with some fear of the unknown (organization wide or individually) that needs to be acknowledged before it is managed.

    You’ll find me a calm, clear-headed, strategic voice in the midst of most chaos.

  • I define leadership as a way of carrying oneself, managing teams, mentoring, as well as the official positions one has held. Strong leadership, to me, is about clear communication, a good deal of empathy, a strong understanding of goals and creating flexible systems and structures that empower us to accomplish more together than we can individually. Being an educator is a core part of my identity and leadership style. I really enjoy being in the lead, but I’m also happy to work collaboratively when a lead has been established.

  • I have created the curriculum for my courses, conducted classes both online and in person. I’ve taught High School level Design, Undergraduate level Design, Undergraduate level Innovations in Marketing courses as well as workshops in the field of design, design thinking, branding, photography and marketing. I was also previously the Director of Design thinking at Peak Year in New York.

  • I have spoken at a number of organizations both in the US and abroad including Creative Mornings, Creative Mornings Field Trips, Peak Year, The Pratt Institute, The Indus Valley School of Art & Architecture, NYU and more. Topics I enjoy speaking about: Design, Branding, Community, Culture, Leadership, Transition and transformation at work, A Real Look at the Career Journey, The “Soft Skills” we need in our work, How Teaching informs Design Practice, Diversity and Inclusion and more.

  • When needed, I’ve led accounts including being the key client contact, managing client expectations, working on creative briefs, establishing timelines, presenting work with and without an extended team, implementing feedback and working on all the day to day aspects of running an account. Building and maintaining relationships is an aspect of this role I have loved.

  • I’ve acted as the project manager in addition to being an account lead when needed on larger projects. This included establishing timelines, aligning internal and external expectations, organizing the internal and client team, creating and adding to briefs and creating project plans from start to finish. Organizing projects and understanding how we get from A to B together is an aspect of this role that I truly enjoy.

Select Clients

Nike
Twitter
Google
Harvard University
Johnson & Johnson
HP
College Board
BAND-AID®
Crosscut Studio
Guggenheim
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation
Lenovo

New York Botanical Garden
Dscout
BMW
Bread Alone
Brooklyn Brewery
Verifone
Pfizer
Janssen
HERO Collective
Happy Cog
Submersive Media
Constellation Collective
DeSantis Breindel