Sarah Ross facilitates leadership development courses that enable storytellers to pursue meaningful equity and justice questions that catalyze change. By meeting communication and public service professionals wherever they may be in developing their relevant knowledge, skills, and self-awareness, Sarah coaches for intra-personal transformation apropos identities, access to power, and agency for change-making, be it interpersonal, organizational, or societal. Her class sessions set the stage for students to engage equity topics together authentically through the stories we hold about ourselves and each other and to reflect upon how our experiences interconnect with larger-scale structural dynamics and systemic-level concepts. 

After earning her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Oberlin College, Sarah served as an Oberlin Shansi Fellow to Indonesia, where she taught at Gadjah Mada University for five semesters. She holds a Master of Public Administration from the Evans School of Public Policy and Governance, a Master of Arts in International Studies from the Jackson School of International Studies, and a Graduate Certificate in International Development Policy and Management from the University of Washington.  

She worked for more than a decade in international education administration in higher education, including in diverse roles at the University of Washington School of Nursing; the Marc Lindenberg Center for International Development, Humanitarian Aid, and Global Citizenship at the University of Washington; the International Center at the University of California San Diego; and International Programs at Lake Washington Institute of Technology; as well as in academic administrative and fundraising roles at Cornish College of the Arts and University Prep.  

Sarah transitioned over time toward facilitating workplace trainings about equity, diversity, and inclusion, including at UCSD’s Building Communities of Social Justice Practice Institute. She later worked as a consultant and equity trainer for leadership teams in complex organizations, preparing executives for organizational equity change work. Sarah served as a trustee for the Oberlin Shansi Memorial Association, including as Secretary of the Board, and served on the Campaign Committee for Shansi’s Second Century. She has lived and/or worked in Taiwan, France, Indonesia, Sri Lanka, and India, and calls Seattle her adult-era hometown.