I'm Sarah, a designer on a mission to make products with more heart.

I lead with curiosity, compassion, and clarity to build products that help people. Want to work together on something?

O

OVER THE LAST 13 YEARS, I’ve had the opportunity to solve a variety of problems for a variety of people. From teachers and students to doctors and nurses, I've learned that regardless of what people do for a living or after work, most problems boil down to one core truth: We all want to relieve our suffering.

Whether it’s the stress of managing a classroom full of third graders or attending to multiple patients with multiple ailments in a day with not nearly enough hours, design has the incredible power to eliminate pain and create space for what's really important.

To me, this is what designing with compassion means—acting on the intention to identify, understand, and relieve the suffering of others. It's a process that requires asking the right questions, actively listening, and carefully removing one's ego at the door. More importantly, it requires a boundless curiosity for people and a genuine desire to help them live their best lives.

As a designer, I not only believe that design has the power to better our world, but I recognize my opportunity to create meaningful change in the lives of others. It is the reason why I choose to work on products and with companies that purposefully put people first.

From top-left to bottom-right: 01 me with some plants (and my treadmill) | 02 my favorite thing: a stack of new books | 03 my sweet pup Lucy (RIP 💔) | 04 my other sweet pup Charlie (RIP 💔) | 05 my favorite bird-watching tree | 06 a selfie with a goat I met in Seattle

My design story

I come from a small town in Indiana. By small town, I mean the kind where the only thing to do is drive through the countryside and count cornfields. To keep myself entertained during weekends and summers, I taught myself basic HTML/CSS and started building websites as a hobby. 

It wasn't until high school that I realized that I could keep doing this and actually make a living from it. So, I dropped my plans to pursue journalism and decided to attend Indiana Tech to study web development. A year after graduating, I moved to Nashville, Tennessee to start my first UX design job. Over a decade later, I can proudly say I've worked hard to refine my craft through various design roles in education, healthcare, and mental health.

Currently, I'm a staff product designer at Modern Health where I lead design for our member clinical care experience. Since I've joined, I've taken several products from concept to market—including Pathways, Family Care, and Benefits Navigation—to drive not only revenue, but competitive differentiation in mental healthcare.

As a designer, I find myself most energized when I can turn complexity into clarity. I love untangling mess and making it make sense for others. For me, I'm at my best when I can put on my systems-thinking hat to connect the dots between product, people, and process. When I can paint the bigger end-to-end picture for my team, this creates space for us to ask hard questions like, Who is this hurting? Who is this is helping? How can we make this better for everyone?  To me, this is how you design with heart and take a product from good to great.

When I'm not designing, you can find me curled up with a book in my home library, taking care of my indoor plants, or hanging out with my husband and our two miniature dachshunds, Susie and Sam.