Hannah works in and between the disciplines of research, strategy, and design. Her approach is grounded in a deep commitment to understanding the intricacies of the human experience and ensuring those insights make their way into design decisions.
In 2024 she founded Small Wheel Drive, an “all-terrain” consultancy dedicated to helping teams navigate the design challenges of emerging mediums and emergent ideas. Through a collaborative process of deep research, thoughtful facilitation, and incisive design strategy, Small Wheel Drive helps teams go “off-road,” create newthings, and traverse other moments of ambiguity with confidence. Small Wheel Drive works across disciplines, industries, and scales, with projects ranging across architecture, product design, web design, event design, and album art. Recent clients have included a sustainable design + build firm creating homes that feel good, a new marketplace for those seeking fewer/better things, and a school for adult emotional education.
Hannah also collaborates with Beyond Human-Centered Design, exploring design frameworks that serve the needs of the more-than-human world. Previously, she has worked with and for the wonderful teams at Meta Immersive Learning, BBC Interactive, National Geographic’s Impact Story Lab, Schneider Electric, SuperLA, The Museum of Art & Photography Bangalore, UNIT9, Erria, Lifeshop, Framework, Brown Multimedia Labs, and Ivy Film Festival.
Hannah’s work draws from a deep well of love for the curiosities of the living world. She has lived past lives as a cognitive neuroscientist at Brown and a research diver studying fish diversity on a sailboat in the British Virgin Islands. She seeks to be on increasingly intimate terms with the world around her and has studied Biodesign & Biomimicry at Pratt, Earth Stewardship at Esalen, and Regenerative Design with the Regenesis Institute. She — like the ancient whales — would trade life on land for the sea and spends her free time testing the upper limits of how long a human can spend on a surfboard. She is the daughter a psychologist and chiropractor who each instilled in her an ethos of care for our human vulnerabilities — a sensibility she now invites into the world of design.
TRAILHEADS
PREVIOUSLY
2024 | SUMMER
Biodesign & Biomimicry Intensive @ Pratt
Earth Stewardship Residency @ Esalen
2022 -> 2024Experience Design Strategist @ UNIT9
2020 -> 2022First Hire @ Framework
2019-2020Creative Technologist @ Brown Multimedia Labs
2018-2020New Media Team Lead @ Ivy Film Festival
2017-2020Providence Team Lead @ Sofar Sounds
2019 | SUMMERImmersive Media Intern @ National Geographic
2017-2019VR+X Teaching Assistant @ Brown University
2018 | SUMMERVR Intern @ EVENT Lab
2018 | SUMMERVR Intern @ Here Be Dragons