SPP Education Manager
Master of Environmental Studies Program, The Evergreen State College

Sarah was born and raised in the South Puget Sound, spending most of her youth in the small town of Roy. Most of her childhood was spent boating on the Puget Sound, making trips to Mt. Rainier, and camping in Eastern Washington, all of which fostered a love of the natural world. Originally majoring in Archaeology as an undergraduate, an introductory class in geology shifted her focus towards the natural sciences and led her to pursue an undergraduate degree in Geology from Western Washington University.

Sarah first joined SPP in 2020 as the Operations Coordinator while a graduate student in the Master of Environmental Studies (MES) program at The Evergreen State College. While in the MES program, Sarah shifted her focus to ecology and botany and conducted her graduate thesis research on a common invasive plant species in western Washington. In her role as an SPP coordinator, Sarah was given the opportunity to participate and assist in several SPP programs and witnessed firsthand the impact that science education and exposure to nature has on incarcerated individuals. After graduating from MES, Sarah stayed on with SPP as the Sagebrush Conservation Nursery program coordinator at Stafford Creek Corrections Center where technicians grew sagebrush for restoration projects in eastern Washington and earned academic credit from The Evergreen State College through SPP’s Education Portfolio program. 

In November 2022, Sarah transitioned to a staff position with SPP, taking on the role of Education Development Manager. In this position, she helps the team develop and expand SPP’s new education portfolios, which are credit-bearing programs that complement the vocational education technicians in SPP programs already receive. Sarah is also a member of the Evergreen Prison Education Project (EPEP) and an adjunct faculty for Centralia College where she teaches environmental science and geology courses to incarcerated students at Green Hill School and Cedar Creek Corrections Center.