Sarah works at Eagle Rock School and Professional Development Center. In her role with Professional Development Center, she facilitates assets-based change for schools and educational organizations around the country. She supports successful implementation of her clients’ priorities including implementing personalized, proficiency-based graduation requirements instead of Carnegie Units, providing more relevant and essential learning to their students, and deepening restorative practices. In her role at the school, she houseparents twelve teens from around the country, along with her partner, Jason. The students hail from all over the country, from Harlem to LA, and they are incredible big brothers and sisters to Sarah’s young children, Mica and Joseph.

 

Before her time at Eagle Rock, Sarah worked for the Partnership for Change (P4C), a grant-funded initiative in Burlington and Winooski, VT. P4C focused on equity and relevance in schools through personalized, proficiency-based practices and community connections. P4C pioneered Neighborhood Learning Conversations (NLCs) to bring together diverse voices from the community and school to ensure graduates’ success in college, career, and community. These conversations occurred with groups of 10-12 individuals in homes, community centers, and coffee shops around the two cities, and led to the formation of new Graduation Expectations in both cities. Before the Partnership for Change, Sarah was the Program Coordinator for Big Picture South Burlington (BPSB), a school-within-a-school that focused on individualized, real-world learning. Its proficiency-based graduation requirements and personal learning plans became models for the state of Vermont.

 

In Sarah’s earlier career, she taught in traditional public schools, innovative/alternative public schools, international schools and independent schools. Some of her favorite courses are a service-learning course in Post-Katrina New Orleans focused on themes of community, race, and racism, and a field course where students learned math, geology, and literature in the context of rock climbing. Sarah earned her Bachelors in Geosciences from Princeton University, with a minor in Education. She earned her Masters from Skidmore College with an emphasis on transforming students’ self-perceptions through success in math and science. She grew up in Rochester, NY with her two parents and three younger siblings.