Sarah is a leader in HR&A’s Inclusive Cities practice working with partners inside and outside of government to build greater political power for marginalized communities, increase accountability of local governments, and institutionalize mechanisms for more just and equitable cities.

At HR&A, Sarah’s work focuses on equipping incoming City and County executives with the information they need to anticipate and address risks and reorient local government operations toward equity and community needs. The goal of HR&A’s transition work is to help newly elected progressive leaders avoid an extended on-the-job learning period, and instead move quickly to seize early opportunities to direct budgets, operations, and policy toward the policy agenda their constituents are craving. As a recent example, in 2023, Sarah led a team embedded in the Mayor’s Office in Oakland, where HR&A supported Mayor’s Thao during her transition period to pass a multi-billion-dollar budget that closed the largest deficit in Oakland’s history while protecting critical services, investing in the municipal workforce, and making the largest investment in affordable housing in the City’s history.

Sarah brings extensive experience working within government to reshape the operations of complex systems and design innovative programs. Previously, Sarah was the Deputy Director of the NYC Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health, where she helped to set the strategy for $250 million in annual investment in new mental health services designed to close racial, ethnic, and geographic gaps in care. In this role, Sarah was part of the team that designed a new program in which social workers and emergency medical technicians – not police officers – are responding to 911 mental health calls in Northern Manhattan and the Southern Bronx.

Sarah holds a Juris Doctorate from Georgetown University, a Masters in Public Affairs from Princeton University, and a B.A. from Colorado College.