Leland Fellow
Sarah King
9th Class, 2017-2019
Sarah King holds a Bachelor of Arts in Social Work from the University of Washington and a Master of Public Health in Global Health from Boston University with an emphasis on managing disasters and complex emergencies. Her Master’s thesis examined unconditional cash transfers as a substitute for standard emergency feeding programs. Sarah’s experience includes developing regional emergency response plans for the City of Cambridge, MA, overseeing malnutrition programming in Ghana, surveying HIV knowledge in Uganda and supporting Save the Children’s Emergency Health and Nutrition team. Sarah also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Senegal. She supported the country’s ongoing maternal and child health programming by aiding in various health assessments, nutrition programming, vaccination campaigns, malnutrition screenings and health education trainings. Prior to joining the Leland Fellowship, Sarah worked at BRAC USA providing program and grant management support to BRAC’s health programs in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Liberia, Sierra Leone, Tanzania and Uganda. She collaborated with in-country teams to design health programs focusing on reproductive, maternal, newborn and child health, offering technical assistance in the field as needed. Sarah was motivated to join the Leland Fellowship by her desire to explore the intersections between nutrition, food security and culture in crisis settings; and to create programming and policies that support culturally appropriate and nutritionally dense solutions.
Field placement: Action Against Hunger
Bahr el Ghazal, South Sudan
Based in Northern Bahr el Ghazal region, Sarah worked with Action Against Hunger (AAH) to address the ongoing food security crisis in South Sudan. She supported and implemented the classic emergency Community-based Management of Acute Malnutrition programming by assessing and improving program quality and accountability, completing monitoring and evaluation activities, and participating in overall project design. Additionally, Sarah conducted Standardized Monitoring and Assessment of Relief and Transitions (SMART) survey nutrition assessments, implemented beneficiary feedback mechanisms through targeted focus group discussions, and expanded the capacity of AAH’s Mother-to-Mother Support Groups.
Policy placement: Action Against Hunger
New York, N.Y.
As Action Against Hunger’s Regional Advocacy Officer, Sarah provided direct advocacy support to country offices within East Africa. Visiting countries to identify advocacy priorities, to map out national change objectives and to develop subsequent strategies, Sarah worked to assist and promote the organization’s global advocacy strategy. Additionally, Sarah provided technical support to country teams on nutrition assessments and programming.