Hey there! I’m Sarah and I’m a Central Texas-based digital media specialist. My background spans visual and performing arts, dance and choreography, motion graphics, video editing, and podcasting production and editing, along with administration and onboarding support. I find inspiration everywhere, but my favorite artists include James Turrell, Mark Rothko, Joan Mitchell, Elisabet Ney, Ali Ward, Wendy Zuckerman, Wes Anderson, Greta Gerwig, Meow Wolf (the organization), the Hellenistic period as a whole, and many others.
I have an AA in Dance from Austin Community College with a focus on improvisation and choreographic methods, and a BA in Cultural Anthropology with a Minor in Arts and Entertainment Technologies from the University of Texas at Austin, along with a certificate in Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion from Cornell. Each of these programs and areas of study zeroed in on looking practices, leadership principles, and building and creating equity through engaging audiences in new and increasingly ethical ways.
During my early college years, I spent time working for Forklift Danceworks, a dance nonprofit spearheaded by Allison Orr and Krissie Marty, focused on engaging communities through a collaborative creative process. Some of their work includes the Trash Project, Power Up, and The Way of the Water. As their first intern back in 2012, I supported Forklift Danceworks in an administrative capacity managing their donor database and mass mail outs, and then began supporting the Leaps and Bounds program as Assistant Teaching Artist to both Krissie Marty and Silva Laukkanen. The Leaps and Bounds program works in partnership with schools to bring creative movement to classrooms around Austin, Texas. Being in the classroom with Krissie and Silva instilled a dedication to nurturing creative learning. Supporting Allison ignited a drive to build genuine and collaborative relationships with stakeholders as a means to mobilize communities toward valiant impact.
As I began my degree in Anthropology and as a recent graduate, I had the opportunity to work for two world renowned libraries: The Nettie Lee Benson Latin American Collection and the Harry Huntt Ransom Humanities Research Center. During my time at the Benson, I supported the detail focused work of the Bindery team, making sure all serials and periodicals were in chronological order and bound together in successive groupings. It was through this work that I discovered my knack for developing training material and curricula, and found my passion for leadership as I was promoted to Library Specialist, supervising a team of 12 student staff members. At both the Benson and the HRC, the patrons came from near and far, requiring an inclusive approach to reference, technological, and directional support. It was so fulfilling to work at the libraries supporting their mission to provide open access to information, a service without strings attached, an open agreement to support research and understanding wholeheartedly.
Concurrent with my time at these libraries, I developed a creative collective focused on engaging audience feedback to support emerging performance artists in the greater Austin area. The Wingfield Collective developed a series of short film studies, called Movement Diaries, and held two Feedback Sessions between the years of 2015 and 2020. With a successful social media campaign, we had a full house each time. The feedback sessions offered emerging performing artists an opportunity to show their works in progress and receive feedback from audience members through written responses to artist questions using principles of the Liz Lerman Critical Response Process. These sessions offered a meaningful engagement between traditionally separate constituencies. Audience members felt included in the artistic process, and the artists were able to communicate more directly and meaningfully with their audiences and receive constructive feedback in real time. This collective has taken a hiatus as we navigate the Post-Pandemic world, but will hopefully be up and running again soon.
At milk + honey Spa and Salon, I continued to hone my Learning and Development focus by becoming a Concierge Trainer, a member of their Diversity Equity and Belonging board, and, later, the Assistant Manager for the Reservations team. During this time, in partnership with my esteemed colleague, Lyric Prikryl-Martin, we overhauled hundreds of documents and created a cohesive, standardized, and engaging training curriculum through a new Learning Management System. This curriculum was designed to help guide both virtual and in-person training sessions, as the company navigated the pandemic and post-pandemic world. As the Assistant Manager, I supervised a fully remote team of 30 along with a concierge virtual training team of 6 and developed the company’s first Train the Trainer program. In that program we brought together principles of improvisation and DEI work to inform our training practices and hone our leadership skills.
As a People Development Coordinator at Telsa Motors, contracted through Intellisource, I supported the onboarding of several thousand new employees, helping to change their lives and provide the tools they needed to be successful in a fast-paced, start-up environment. During the onboarding sessions, my work revolved around sending invitations to thousands of new employees each week, managing the digital support ticketing system, supporting new employees navigating the online HR portal, and maintaining our digital attendance tracking system. I also pride myself on designing the official onboarding name tags – a feat of no small graphic expertise as extensive identification and classification information was required along with the iconic logo, and the name tags needed to be both legible and easy to read from several feet away, a mission which I accomplished multiple times over several months as needs changed. From communicating face to face with just a few people at a time at the libraries, to directly impacting thousands of community members both virtually and in person, this work at Tesla opened my eyes to just how much I love supporting communities through communication and education, and how digital programs can expand communicative reach.
At the Meadows Center for Water and the Environment I have had the absolute time of my life. My role began as a part-time Communications Assistant balancing this work with my Tesla work. As the Communications Assistant, I was mainly focused on coordinating the inaugural Climate Science Conference which drew over 300 attendees, and over time, this role grew to a full-time role as the Digital Media Specialist where I support all communications efforts including general marketing via email campaigns, grant deliverables by designing educational signage and offering technical support and marketing for webinar events, and meeting the audio/visual needs. In this role I also produce the Center’s climate change podcast, Come Heck or Hot Water, from sound design and guest booking, to segment outlining, editing, marketing and distribution. Beyond these impactful projects, I have supported the development of the State of the Devils River Watershed Report, by facilitating the development of the Sustainable Recreation section with the technical team, conducting over 9 hours of recorded and transcripted interviews, and by designing the over 200 pages of the final product. It has been thrilling to participate in these projects and work with these communities to help improve life here in Texas and support science communication to communities that are benefiting in real time from the work this Center is accomplishing.
As I move forward exploring looking and consumption practices, ethical and equitable community development and engagement, and finding space and time for personal joy through artistic practice, you can find me pursuing my M.A. in Mass Communications, working with the San Marcos Art Commission, and finding my voice on my two work-in progress podcasts: Wait…You can do that?! and Texas Women Podcast. Wait…You can do that?! is a podcast designed around careers and learning all the wonderful things people do to pay for stuff. Texas Women Podcast explores the many women that have shaped Texas, look for content in 2025. (I do also take breaks sometimes to pet my adorable and mischievous bulldog, scratch the real estate itch by visiting open houses, and experiment in the kitchen.)
I love meeting new people, offering consultation, and grabbing a great coffee to talk about life in general and conceptualizing new projects. If you would like to get in touch, please email me at sawingit@gmail.com.
Sarah Wingfield 