Sarah Krasley

Sarah Krasley is a founder of Shimmy Technologies and a Visiting Fellow at Cornell University's ILR School. She studies what happens when tectonic forces—automation, climate collapse, and economic restructuring—rearrange the livelihoods of working people. And then she builds solutions to help them adapt. As founder of Shimmy Technologies, Sarah and her team reimagined how supply chain workers could upskill and reskill with greater accessibility—using mobile-based tools designed to meet people where they are. To date, Shimmy’s training tools have reached over 12,000 workers across Bangladesh, Honduras, and beyond.

Prior to founding Shimmy, Sarah led an emerging technology group at Autodesk, where she used digital tools to improve factory heating and cooling and helped designers and engineers integrate sustainable materials into product development. Her work in accessible design and digital transformation has been recognized by MIT Solve, XPRIZE, IBM, Microsoft, IEEE, Fast Company, Acumen Fund, and the World Economic Forum. She holds an MBA from the University of San Francisco and a BFA from Pratt Institute, and serves on the boards of AAPN and SPESA, two multinational trade associations shaping the future of work in the textile and apparel industry.

Now, as a Visiting Fellow, Sarah is researching what happens when automation and climate adaptation converge in the same labor market. Her work focuses on industrial economies in the textile supply chain, where intensifying heat and shifting investment patterns are already driving job redesign, machine degradation, and factory climate adaptation planning. She is especially interested in how these shifts affect female workers, wage structures, and the policies, financing models, and design of cross-industry reskilling frameworks needed to make transitions truly just—and how to scale those interventions in time to meet the accelerating change present in this moment.