Hi, I'm Sara Holcombe. Design leader, data experience strategist, storyteller at heart and the person at dinner with opinions about charts.
I've spent fifteen years turning complex information into work that shifts how people think and the decisions they make. My path started in newsrooms, ran through NGO field offices in Cambodia and Nepal, the CDC during the COVID pandemic and now Kraft Heinz, where I lead UX and Data Experience for the company's internal products. Being a photojournalist taught me how to read a room before I ever read a brief.
Today I manage a team of 10+ designers across UX and data visualization, build the chart systems and accessibility standards that hold our work together and stay close enough to the craft to design the charts myself. The combination of design leadership and data fluency is rarer than it should be. It's where I do my best work.
Associate Director, Experience Design
Kraft Heinz
Jan 2025 – Present
Lead the Experience Design practice across global internal products at a $26B food company. Manage 10+ designers across UX, data visualization and AI product design. Drive design strategy, accessibility standards and execution across roughly 20 products used daily by 12,000 employees.
Principal Data Viz Designer, UX
Kraft Heinz
Sep 2022 – Jan 2025
Joined as Principal Data Visualization Designer and was promoted to Group Lead, building out the data experience practice and establishing design standards across enterprise products. Co-created Delish, the company's design system, contributing the chart component library, semantic color system and data storytelling patterns. Mentored designers and researchers across UX, raising data literacy and visualization standards.
Senior Data Viz Designer
Morning Consult
Nov 2021 – Sep 2022
Designed data visualization experiences for Morning Consult's market intelligence platform, turning proprietary polling data into tools and reports that paying clients used to make decisions about brand strategy, marketing and policy positions. Scaled across subscriber dashboards, gated research reports and public-facing publications. Partnered with editorial, research and production teams to translate complex polling data into clear, publishable insights.
Visual Information Specialist
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
Mar 2017 – Nov 2021
Designed accessible communication products translating complex public health data into clear, actionable insights for policymakers, partners and the public. Embedded with CDC's Division of Global Health Protection and worked remotely with Africa CDC during the COVID-19 response. Established Section 508 accessibility standards across all deliverables, ensuring compliance with federal law and usability for audiences with disabilities.
Art Director & Graphic Designer
Blue Sky Agency
Feb 2016 – Mar 2017
Designed brand identity, campaigns and marketing collateral across consumer, retail and nonprofit clients at a full-service Atlanta agency. Work spanned logo design, print and digital campaigns, mailers, email marketing and creative concepting, including the winning concept for the Harlem Globetrotters logo redesign.
Media Manager
Cambodian Children's Fund
Sep 2013 – Sep 2015
Joined as a designer and was promoted to Media Manager within the first year, building and leading the in-house creative team for a nonprofit supporting thousands of Cambodia's most impoverished children with education, healthcare and family programs. Hired and trained a team of designers, videographers and photographers, including local Cambodian creatives. Led a complete redesign of the CCF website that increased traffic 65% and produced documentary work in the field including the Generational Change campaign on the long-term impact of CCF's programs.
Media Director
Sattya Media Arts Collective
Oct 2011 – Nov 2013
Led communications, programming and creative production for a community-focused arts organization that brought media arts education and public events to Kathmandu through a skill-share model with international and local teachers. Hired and managed a small communications team, designed all visual collateral and produced signature programs including a public mural festival featuring international graffiti artists, community garden projects and outdoor film screenings that brought free programming into Kathmandu's neighborhoods.
Graphic Designer
Madwire
Sep 2010 – Sep 2011
Designed web interfaces, landing pages and online marketing materials for small business clients across a range of industries.
Multimedia Editor and Producer
The Daytona Beach News Journal
2009 – 2010
Produced and edited multimedia journalism for the newspaper's website on daily deadlines, managing staff photographers, videographers and outside contractors to deliver news-worthy stories on time.
Multimedia Producer
Habitat for Humanity International
2006 – 2006
Created video, photography and graphic design content for Habitat for Humanity's Nepal office, including imagery for the HFHI 2006 calendar and trained local staff in field-based media collection best practices.