Sarah is a director of strategic partnerships at the Foundation for Food & Agriculture Research (FFAR), building partnerships for the Agroecosystems Priority Area, which includes Sustainable Water Management, Soil Health, AgMission, and the Efficient Fertilizer Consortium.
Before FFAR, Sarah was the president of Food FutureZ, providing research, partnership development, meeting design and facilitation, and strategy consulting services for food systems organizations. Previously, Sarah served for eight years as a senior executive overseeing the Duke World Food Policy Center’s (WFPC) strategy, grant management, partnership development and ongoing operations. While at WFPC, Sarah oversaw the planning and launch phases of the center, its management and a global portfolio of projects. She guided the full center team on research methodology, writing and communications strategies, designed and facilitated summits on various food topics, and developed project proposals for funding and calls for proposals. Based in the Duke in DC office, she served as a national and international liaison to foster partnerships.
Her topical areas of focus have included agricultural production systems for better nutrition and reduced environmental impacts, the financing ecosystem for achieving agrifood systems transformation and food and nutrition security, expanding donor toolkits from charity to address root causes and the nexus between agriculture and human health. Before Duke, Sarah worked at Datu Research, focusing on market-based incentives for more environmentally sustainable practices for food producers, with a focus on supporting the Soil Health Renaissance for the launch of the Soil Health Institute.
Sarah earned a Master of Environmental Management degree at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment in 2013 to explore the intersections of agriculture and the environment. Prior to her graduate studies, Sarah worked at New York Sun Works (NYSW), a non-profit organization that teaches environmental science through the lens of sustainable food production. She also holds a BA in English from Yale University.