Sara Philibotte

Hi, I'm Sara! I love learning how people behave and think to better serve other people and to help positively change how we interact with and understand each other in a chaotic and unpredictable world.

I have always loved the irrefutability of working with data and the creativity and empathy involved with storytelling, and as a self-proclaimed nerd, I am always excited to tackle a new research question and expand my knowledge of a new field. I have found the perfect way to combine these seemingly disparate skills through the world of market research, analytics, and data science. 

I have experience working with organizations of all sizes, from Fortune 500 enterprises to Inc. 500 startups and grassroots non-profits. As a detail-oriented person researcher, I have worked in fields ranging from cognitive neuroscience to government technology implementation to non-profit social media engagement.

EDUCATION & COMMUNITY SERVICE

As a first-generation student with a lot of ambition and a lot of love for my childhood community, I was awarded a prestigious Daniels Fund Scholarship for my scholarship, leadership, civic engagement, and community service. 

Becoming a Daniels Scholar changed my life, coming from a supportive and humble working class family. It granted me a full-ride scholarship to any university in the country. While I completed my freshman year of college at the University of Colorado Boulder, I took a leap of faith and transferred to my dream school, New York University.

At NYU, I doubled majored in economics and psychology, completing the College of Art and Science's honors program with a senior thesis on a music perception study I conducted with the psychology lab I co-founded. While at NYU, I was also fortunate enough study abroad in Florence, Italy and to intern at a hedge fund, a youth development nonprofit, and a large media company while also working part-time as a tutor with a local non-profit.

I love to challenge myself and learn about a variety of topics, so I enrolled in courses such as: econometrics, statistics, calculus, linear algebra, neuroscience, cognition, scientific programming, microbiology, organic chemistry, finance, economic development, and Italian and Spanish language.

RESEARCH & SCIENCE

I've always loved problem solving and learning about people, but I fell in love with academic research in college. While taking a cognitive neuroscience class taught by Dr. Wallisch, I approached him during office hours and asked him how to get started in doing psychology research. By the end of the semester, with a few students, we co-founded the Fox Lab - a new research lab focused on the intersection of psychology and music.

In the Fox Lab, I learned how to do research from beginning to end. From recruiting participants and obtaining IRB approval to spending a year preparing my experimental stimuli, I learned how to be thorough in ensuring the quality of my research - principles that have served me well in the professional world, from digital marketing to strategy consulting.

I learned the value of diligence in the scientific process as I ran over 600 participants through a 2-hour study. I also got my hands dirty in a massive data set, learning to analyze and visualize my data in order to tell my story. After I graduated, I published a research paper in PLoS One and presented my findings at the Society for Neuroscience annual conference.

I still support the Fox Lab ad hoc and actively cultivate my data analysis skills. In my full-time role as an Associate at Booz Allen Hamilton, I completed a full-time data science professional course through General Assembly where I solidified my Python coding skills and learned the principles of data science, and today, I leverage tools like Tableau and Power BI to support the firm's largest internal databases.

2023 Music Perception Journal Publication

2018 PLoS One Publication

TRAVELING & MEETING NEW PEOPLE

While I solve problems for clients through my day-to-day research and consulting work, my love of learning about people extends into the rest of my life. I grew up in Colorado and New Hampshire, and while my family taught me to appreciate the natural beauty of both places, I also love the buzzing energy of living in a big city.

With college in New York City, exploring around Italy and the rest of Europe during my junior year of college, and seven years of living in Washington, DC under my belt, I can officially declare myself a traveler. I love to learn about new cultures, try new foods, and form relationships with the people I encounter in every place that I visit. I learn something new from every person I meet. I am currently working my way towards visiting 30 countries by age 30, and I only have a few left to go!

I love photographing the places I visit to capture each place's unique beauty, from the fiery foliage of West Virginia in November to the endless sand dunes of the Sahara Desert. While I love writing as a means to express myself, nothing captures the beauty of a moment in time like the perfect photograph.