Sarah, a New Jersey native, graduated from Wellesley College in 2003 with a degree in Urban Studies and a concentration in Education. She has been active in a variety of community issues, including tutoring under-performing elementary school students and residents of a Family Shelter in Cambridge, Massachusetts. During a semester at Trinity College, Sarah helped to establish and coordinate an after-school tutoring program at a shelter in Hartford and served as the Community Outreach/Public Relations Chair for the Hunger and Homelessness Campaign.
Field placement: Oregon Food Bank
Portland, Oregon
Sarah developed a Community Advocacy and Action Report for two of Oregon Food Bank's 18 regional food banks. She advocated for solutions to the root causes of hunger by working with stakeholders at regional agencies to conduct a thorough assessment of local advocacy needs and capacity. The finished report addressed local advocacy needs, community resources, capacity building techniques, and local and state best practices, and outlined recommendations for increasing both local advocacy efforts and the advocacy capacity of the statewide network as a whole. It also provided step-by-step instructions for developing an effective advocacy plan and putting it into action.
Policy placement: Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
Washington, D.C.
Sarah supported LOGA staff in their advocacy work on a number of domestic anti-poverty issues. She also developed a survey to assess the effectiveness of the LOGA Hunger/Poverty Action Network and recommended ways in which the network could be more effective in its efforts to address hunger and poverty.