Sara has a long and deep career as a marketing communications executive. She has worked both within organizations and as an agency executive and has broad experience as a strategist, team leader, and creative guide. She has shaped marketing campaigns for a wide variety of clients, including some of the nation’s most influential and consequential organizations. Her work has helped clients communicate their missions to niche audiences as well as to the broader public. She shapes internal and external communications that are defining, unified, purposeful, and productive. In her work to strengthen clients’ brands, she has helped to strengthen their market share, navigate crises, and raise private philanthropic investment.

Prior to joining Conlon Public Strategies, Sara led the philanthropic marketing practice at Lipman Hearne, a national agency focused exclusively on nonprofit and mission-driven organizations. There, she guided creative communications for fundraising campaigns with goals ranging from $10 million to $7 billion. Sara began her career in public relations with Burson-Marsteller and moved into marketing communications, holding leadership roles at Illinois Tech, the Alzheimer’s Association, and Rush University Medical Center before returning to agency life and consulting.

Sara is an avid runner, reader, and cultural consumer.

Community

Throughout her career, Sara has been actively engaged as a singer and actor in the professional Chicago theatre and music community. She enjoys bringing her offstage expertise to the performing arts as well, having served as an informal and formal adviser to many Chicago-area theater companies. Sara currently serves as the president of the board of directors for The Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company.

Education

Sara holds a bachelor’s degree in political science, with a minor in music, from Smith College.