As a nonprofit professional Sara has worked for twenty years in a variety of capacities supporting social and human service organizations including program and strategic planning, fundraising, legislative advocacy and organizational development. Recently she served with Youth With A Mission in Hawaii, developing a school in legislative advocacy for social change. Sara has worked and traveled in more than twenty countries in Europe, South East Asia, South America and the Middle East which included six months in Baghdad serving as program manager to the Constitutional Drafting Support Program, led by the National Democratic Institute for International Affairs in 2005. Sara is a writer by nature and has completed several manuscripts and blogs extensively. She loves to garden, paint, and lives with her four children in the bluffs of the Mississippi River Valley.
Professional Interests and Contributions
- Civil society and democratization
- Organizational development
- Strength-based Strategic Planning
- Faith and social justice movements
- Legislative Drafting and Assessment
- Indigenous Rights
- Organizing and community needs assessment
- Grant writing and fundraising strategies
Memberships and community service
- National Association of Women Business Owners - Minnesota Chapter, Member
- Partnership for Peace and Transformative Impact, Partner and Board Member
- Do Justice Coalition, Board Member
- TRIPS - African Missions Team, Board Member
Publications
- “Using law for social change: A handbook for grassroots organizations” Do Justice Training, 2017
- “A Once Forgotten Iraq Stills Echoes” Online publication at www.goodmenproject.com, May 2015
- “Crossing into Iraqi Airspace,” Stillpoint Magazine. Fall 2006. (Wenham, MA: Vol. 22 Number 1)
- “Still Waiting: After Winning Recognition in 1988 the Decade was Dismal for Brazil’s Indigenous,” The Cultural Survival Quarterly. Fall 2004. (Cambridge, MA: Vol. 28 Issue 3)
- “Institutionalist Legislative Drafting Theory and Methodology: A tool for civil society participation in democracy-building” Master’s Paper, presented at Brandeis University, May 2004