Sarah has been making a difference in the Education Sector for more than twenty-five years.
Driven by a personal sense of mission to support children and families in need, Sarah started as a Policy Analyst for the NYC Mayor’s Office. She started teaching while attending Columbia Law School where she saw the power of hands-on learning in eighth grade classrooms in Harlem. Sarah went on to found the Brooklyn Office of Legal Outreach where her work with 6th-12th graders from underserved neighborhoods included classroom teaching, social activism competitions, summer law institutes, a mentor program and a comprehensive college bound program. She also trained teachers throughout the five boroughs of NYC to use interactive law lessons in their social studies classrooms.
After a move to New Jersey, Sarah became Executive Director of Family Service League, a community-based organization founded in 1881 that included an early childhood center, domestic violence counseling and other social services. There, Sarah designed and launched a new mentor program in collaboration with The Roche Foundation. In 2009, Sarah was approached to manage the Education Grants portfolio for the Merck Company Foundation, whose work included STEM initiatives like the United Negro College Fund Merck Scholars, as well as more than 400 grants totaling over $1b annually.
Sarah was recruited to join the LEGO Foundation in Switzerland in 2012. Sarah joined the growing organization, where she would hold several titles over the next seven years, including Senior Director of Programmes & Partnerships, Head of Partnerships for North America, Initiatives Lead for Learning through Play in Early Childhood, and Senior Advisor, a role she held until 2020. During Sarah’s tenure, she focused on strategy, grant selection and management, project design, team leadership, training and program oversight. She presented regularly on the importance of Learning through Play at convenings all over the world. Sarah co-created and managed several key partnerships during her time at the LEGO Foundation, including Play Every Day with Sesame Workshop, the Play Lab project with BRAC, Right to Play, Harvard Center on the Developing Child, Ashoka, and the New Profit Early Learning Fund, which was recognized at the White House Early Learning Summit in 2016.
In 2013, Sarah had a vision to establish the LEGO Idea Conference as a global social impact platform. Together with a team of colleagues and the production firm circ, Sarah helped establish the event as one of the most ground-breaking and sought-after education conferences in the world. By designing and co-designing hands-on experiences to showcase content and practice, and by engaging participants in interactive learning and shared experiences, Sarah became a resource to organizations all over the world. One of her passions is working directly with speakers and presenters to help them make their presentations interactive and engaging. Sarah has collaborated with many organizations, including The World Bank, Oxford University, the Brookings Institution, Teach for India, the International Education Funders’ Group, The HundrED, aeioTU, Tools of the Mind and many others.
In 2020, during the COVID pandemic, Sarah decided to focus her work even more directly on amplifying impact within the Education sector. Her goal is to help funders and other influencers increase their impact through expereinces. It was this mission that led her to found Lightbulb, a new social entrepreneurship dedicated to changing the way we think and work in the philanthropy, education and early childhood sectors.
Sarah holds a BA from Columbia College and a JD from Columbia Law School. She is a Certified LEGO Serious Play Facilitator, a LEGO Six Bricks Master Trainer and a LEGO Playbox Trainer. She lives in Montclair, New Jersey with her patient husband, three awesome kids and one delightful dog.
Read a profile of Sarah in The Glasshammer here.