Sarah Rigsbee, D.Eng, is the Human-Centered Design Strategist Lead at the Institute for Assured Autonomy.  Rigsbee leads work in the areas of systems and design thinking, human-centered design, and innovation strategy, where she leads diverse teams through designing and developing solutions to address various user and sponsor needs.  She leverages human-centered design methods to solve complex challenges for a range of users in a variety of different domain and challenge areas.  Rigsbee firmly believes in the combined power of empathy, curiosity and humility for solving complex human-focused problems.

Rigsbee works at the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (JHU/APL) as a Supervisor and Project Lead of internally and externally focused human-centered challenges.  For external challenges, Rigsbee is a Project Lead for the Tactical Advancements for the Next Generation (TANG) Program, which is a diverse team of problem solvers that tackle mission-focused, human-centered National Security challenges through design and systems thinking.  She is also an experienced design strategist, data analyst, and human system engineer, and likes to apply her technical background and human-centered focus to solving challenges and improving the intersection of the human and the machine.

At JHU/APL, Rigsbee is a member of the Senior Professional Staff.  She earned her Doctor of Engineering degree in Engineering Management from George Washington University while working at JHU/APL.  Prior to JHU/APL, she earned a Masters of Science degree in System Engineering from the University of Virginia, and a Bachelors of Science degree in Electrical Engineering from Virginia Commonwealth University.