Sarah Whitman

Senior Advisor for Strategy and Growth

As Senior Advisor for Strategy and Growth, Sarah brings her expertise in strategic planning to drive team-specific and company-wide business development initiatives. Using her experience working on educational and policy programs for district, state, and national projects, Sarah leads internal and external strategic planning initiatives for AnLar and its clients. Sarah utilizes her background in research and data analysis to support systems thinking and the implementation of strategies at a large scale to improve student outcomes. Sarah has expertise in special education, early childhood, effective data use, long-term systems change, and state special education systems. Sarah is particularly skilled in business development, program evaluation, change management, professional development, facilitation, and training design and delivery.

Before joining the AnLar team, Sarah spent five years working for the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education (MA ESE) in the Special Education Planning and Policy Development Office. As the Early Childhood Outcomes Coordinator and Data Analyst, Sarah supported special educators statewide as they sought to effectively implement data-based decision-making and improve early childhood outcomes. Sarah was integral to the State Systemic Improvement Plan (SSIP) team and oversaw the implementation and scale-up of an evidence-based practice in districts representing 30% of the public preschool population in the state.

Sarah has a Doctorate in Education from Johns Hopkins University. Her dissertation focused on creating a new implementation fidelity evaluation tool that can be used by states and other large organizations to evaluate complex multi-site initiatives and effectively communicates evaluation planning and results with relevant stakeholders. Sarah has a Master’s in Education Policy and Management from Harvard University and a Master’s in Religion and Society from Boston University.

Sarah lives in Brookline, MA with her husband Aldert and son Austin. When Sarah is not contemplating the big picture, or how to save the world, she spends a lot of her time hanging from the ceiling as an amateur circus aerialist. She also enjoys traveling, finding new ways to entertain her toddler, gardening, and cooking elaborate dinners.

Pronouns: she/her/hers

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