Sarah Ferreiro Hand
Sarah Ferreiro Hand is a People & Operations leader with more than 12 years of experience helping purpose-driven organizations scale through thoughtful people strategy, systems design, and operational structure. She specializes in partnering with CEOs and executive teams in early- to growth-stage organizations, where she builds and leads HR and People Operations functions that support rapid growth while maintaining strong culture, compliance, and employee experience. Her work spans organizational design, workforce planning, performance management, and global workforce strategy, including distributed teams across the U.S., UK, Spain, and India.
Throughout her career, Sarah has built people functions from the ground up in mission-driven environments, most recently serving as Senior Manager of People Operations at the Sandberg Goldberg Bernthal Family Foundation (Lean In). In that role, she scaled the organization’s talent infrastructure, supported major hiring growth, developed employee lifecycle systems, and helped launch initiatives that strengthened culture and inclusion, including founding an ERG for Latina employees. Her background also includes roles in recruiting and talent strategy across nonprofit and public health organizations, where she consistently focused on building scalable, equitable, and efficient HR systems.
Today, Sarah works as an independent People & Operations consultant while also serving in leadership and board roles, including Associate Director of Student Affairs for ALPFA Phoenix. She is deeply committed to mentoring emerging Latino professionals and creating pathways for student success through university partnerships with institutions such as Arizona State University and the University of Arizona. Her approach blends strategic HR expertise with a strong belief in inclusive leadership, community building, and designing organizations where both people and performance can thrive.
• University of Massachusetts Amherst- B.A.
• ALPFA (Association of Latino Professionals for America) - Phoenix Chapter Board Member
• Plant to Plate Internship Program
What do you attribute your success to?
I'd say the number one person who has influenced my success is my dad. He's the number one person on that hype crew, always pushing me to do new, creative things. My dad came here when he was 10 from Cuba, and his entire family had to start fresh with no money and no resources. He really did a lot with his life - he graduated from Boston University, went through a management training program at Gillette, and became a financial controller there. Then he transitioned from for-profit to nonprofit work as a CFO in the family planning space. My mother had a private practice doing clinical social work for the Latino community. I grew up seeing them work in service-oriented organizations and having their work have an impact versus a sales outcome, and that's been important to me in my career. Separate from my dad, I grew up in that era of Sex and the City, seeing women with careers, and I wanted that. I wanted to have an impact that was only attached to my name, my effort, and my good work, and that drives me.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
Every opportunity, every moment is an opportunity to sell yourself, to advocate for yourself. So own it. Everywhere you go, take the opportunity to tell people about something amazing that's happening in your life or that you're excited about, because that's what they're going to remember. That kind of attitude has helped me pursue other opportunities. Second, don't gatekeep. If you have some cool way you're using AI to amplify your work, share it. If you're going to a conference that you think is really going to build your skills or help you build your community, bring three friends with you. Make sure that you're sharing knowledge, resources, and opportunities with people, because not everybody has the same levels of access, and the only way that we're going to advance as women is if we push each other. And that leads me to my third piece of advice: build your hype crew. Be intentional about it. Be intentional about having women in your life that support you and that you support, that you can go to when you need them to build you up. And if you have people in your life who aren't supporting your life goals, who don't get it, then maybe help them make a graceful exit.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
A major opportunity in people operations is the growing need among entrepreneurs and scaling organizations for support in building HR infrastructure, recruiting executive teams, and implementing effective HR technology systems. At the same time, continued work in the nonprofit sector and student-focused programs remains a key area of impact and growth for experienced practitioners.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
Service, mentorship, knowledge-sharing, community support, and uplifting other women are the core values that guide both my work and personal life.