Sarah's research interests have been directly influenced by her professional experience. Most recently, she taught with American University's School of International Service online MA in International Relations program. She taught sections of the "International Studies: History, Theory and Practice" course, designed by Professor Patrick Thaddeus Jackson. She also taught with the University of London (School of Advanced Study) online MA in Refugee Protection and Forced Migration Studies program. She co-led a course with Jean-Francois Durieux, entitled "Securing Refugee Protection in Practice." She will teach a "capstone" masters course with Columbia (SIPA) in 2017.
Sarah has done extensive work with non-governmental organizations. Most recently, she carried out research and policy advice for Mercy Corps. She worked as a case manager for World Relief (DuPage) outside of Chicago, where she helped refugee families resettling from Iraq, Burma, Burundi, Cuba, Somalia and Iran. Later she briefly filled in as interim resettlement manager. Sarah was greatly influenced by her time with Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service (TCRS, an offspring of the Lutheran World Federation) in Kibondo, Tanzania, where she helped staff to manage and support large refugee camps in western Tanzania. She also interned with the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, where she contributed to various meetings, learned much more about the humanitarian landscape, and benefited from the oversight of her mentor, Elizabeth Ferris. These opportunities greatly shaped her understanding of international relations and forced migration, and stretched her capabilities as she learned new tasks and worked under pressure.
Sarah was also a Franklin Fellow at the Department of State (DRL-AF), and helped to craft policy on internal displacement for USAID. These positions gave her a unique view into government work, the relevant bureaucracies, and how the US approaches forced migration in a broader foreign policy context.
She has worked with a range of different research institutions, carrying out consultancies and short-term assignments for the Brookings Institution (Project on Internal Displacement) and Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre. She thoroughly enjoyed this work, as it brought together her passion on the subject of displacement with the policy world, and the critical analysis often reserved only for academic work. Indeed, Sarah seeks to produce work that is relevant to policymakers, practitioners, and others seeking solutions to crises of displacement. Other consultancies include work with Oxford's Forced Migration Review, the International Labour Organisation, the Institute for the Study of International Migration, and the Danish Refugee Council/Tana (Copenhagen). She has also carried out independent research projects in Thailand, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Nepal.
Sarah's earlier career years were full of opportunities abroad that helped to frame her perspectives and whet her appetite for further travel, an interest in politics and international relations, and vulnerable groups like the displaced. Indeed, service trips to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua and Costa Rica expanded her knowledge and built her interest in working abroad. Out of these projects she even helped to co-found an NGO, Pathways to Global Literacy (PGL), which continues to provide books and other literacy materials to small community libraries in the Dominican Republic. PGL pays stipends to young women librarians, and trains them to care for the libraries and engage children in the community in literacy promotion. PGL also supports Heshima Kenya, an NGO in Nairobi, Kenya, which provides shelter to young refugee women and unaccompanied minors.
In sum, Sarah's experience, research interests and academic background weave together a story of her passion to study and work toward assisting the world's displaced, amidst a complex picture of different actors, politics, and geographies. Rather than being separate categories in her life, these facets interact to form a rich, diverse and interesting career trajectory.
Sarah has done extensive work with non-governmental organizations. Most recently, she carried out research and policy advice for Mercy Corps. She worked as a case manager for World Relief (DuPage) outside of Chicago, where she helped refugee families resettling from Iraq, Burma, Burundi, Cuba, Somalia and Iran. Later she briefly filled in as interim resettlement manager. Sarah was greatly influenced by her time with Tanganyika Christian Refugee Service (TCRS, an offspring of the Lutheran World Federation) in Kibondo, Tanzania, where she helped staff to manage and support large refugee camps in western Tanzania. She also interned with the World Council of Churches in Geneva, Switzerland, where she contributed to various meetings, learned much more about the humanitarian landscape, and benefited from the oversight of her mentor, Elizabeth Ferris. These opportunities greatly shaped her understanding of international relations and forced migration, and stretched her capabilities as she learned new tasks and worked under pressure.
Sarah was also a Franklin Fellow at the Department of State (DRL-AF), and helped to craft policy on internal displacement for USAID. These positions gave her a unique view into government work, the relevant bureaucracies, and how the US approaches forced migration in a broader foreign policy context.
She has worked with a range of different research institutions, carrying out consultancies and short-term assignments for the Brookings Institution (Project on Internal Displacement) and Oxford's Refugee Studies Centre. She thoroughly enjoyed this work, as it brought together her passion on the subject of displacement with the policy world, and the critical analysis often reserved only for academic work. Indeed, Sarah seeks to produce work that is relevant to policymakers, practitioners, and others seeking solutions to crises of displacement. Other consultancies include work with Oxford's Forced Migration Review, the International Labour Organisation, the Institute for the Study of International Migration, and the Danish Refugee Council/Tana (Copenhagen). She has also carried out independent research projects in Thailand, Jordan, Lebanon, Syria and Nepal.
Sarah's earlier career years were full of opportunities abroad that helped to frame her perspectives and whet her appetite for further travel, an interest in politics and international relations, and vulnerable groups like the displaced. Indeed, service trips to the Dominican Republic, Mexico, Nicaragua and Costa Rica expanded her knowledge and built her interest in working abroad. Out of these projects she even helped to co-found an NGO, Pathways to Global Literacy (PGL), which continues to provide books and other literacy materials to small community libraries in the Dominican Republic. PGL pays stipends to young women librarians, and trains them to care for the libraries and engage children in the community in literacy promotion. PGL also supports Heshima Kenya, an NGO in Nairobi, Kenya, which provides shelter to young refugee women and unaccompanied minors.
In sum, Sarah's experience, research interests and academic background weave together a story of her passion to study and work toward assisting the world's displaced, amidst a complex picture of different actors, politics, and geographies. Rather than being separate categories in her life, these facets interact to form a rich, diverse and interesting career trajectory.