Anna Cunningham grew up in Laurel Springs, New Jersey, and spent a decade in Portland, Oregon. Today she calls SNOW home—ten years strong this November. Her remit is wide and happily cross-functional: Design, Writing, the HUB, Editorial, Patient Worthy, and even a dash of Recruitment. If you’ve ever seen a knot of complexity at SNOW cleanly untangled, there’s a good chance Anna was nearby with a whiteboard and a plan.
Before SNOW, Anna taught for 20 years and ran a children’s art studio in Pennsylvania for ten. The career change was bold, but the throughline was clear: creativity in service of people. “I wanted work that kept me learning,” she says, “and where the systems we build make life easier for the humans using them.”
Becoming an Ultra-Learner
Early at SNOW, Anna taught herself reporting. It sounded tactical. It became transformational. As she pulled data and built dashboards, something clicked: numbers weren’t just rows and columns; they were narratives waiting to be told. That insight reshaped how recruitment operated and opened doors across the organization. She started following threads—How does this process work? Who relies on it? Where are the gaps?—and used the answers to drive accountability and efficiency. That “aha” moment set a new direction: become an ultra-learner, go deeper, faster, and always with intention.
What keeps her energized is the impact. She loves finding clarity in the noise and helping teams work smarter together. Her litmus test is simple: do our systems serve people, not the other way around? Connecting dots, removing friction, and empowering others to do their best work is the fuel behind her day.
Do What Makes Sense, Not What’s Familiar
Colleagues know Anna as a highly operational thinker. They also know she’s an artist. Much of her artwork is botanical, inspired by hours in her garden—the same place she goes to reset. Weeding counts as stress relief. So does foraging. This month’s proud find: a cluster of puff mushrooms that became a seasonal dinner. When she’s not in the studio or the yard, you’ll catch her arranging flowers, finishing home projects (she just completed her first mosaic), hiking with her dogs, hosting friends, visiting vineyards and cideries, and, most of all, watching her son grow up. Being a good neighbor and friend sits high on her list of goals.
Her advice for anyone new to SNOW reads like a pocket guide to thriving here: stay curious and value every voice. Do what makes sense, not just what’s familiar. Embrace change and growth. Balance work and life, and step back often to see the bigger picture.
Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.
–Pablo Picasso
Anna keeps a favorite quote nearby when she’s redesigning a process or building something from scratch. It’s from Pablo Picasso: “Every act of creation is first an act of destruction.” To her, it’s a reminder to let go of the way things have always been done so we can make space for better. It’s also a reminder that making better isn’t about flair or noise—it’s about outcomes you can feel. A smoother handoff. A clearer story from the data. A teammate who leaves a meeting knowing exactly what to do next.
Ten years in, Anna’s story at SNOW is still a work in progress—and that’s the point. She’ll keep learning. She’ll keep building. And she’ll keep proving that when you listen closely and design with intention, even the most complicated systems can feel human.
