Sarah Place

Sarah has over 20 years of experience in designing and implementing programs to drive social and economic mobility for underserved communities. She most recently served as Bottom Line’s Chief Program Officer, where she led program strategy, design, and innovation for the organization. This role allowed her to drive innovation through a human-centered design approach and to build a culture of continuous improvement to ensure the delivery of high-quality programs for students.

Her first job after earning a BA in English from the University of New Hampshire was in corporate philanthropy, where she learned about Bottom Line through a proposal for funding. She joined Bottom Line in 2006 as a College Advisor where she had the privilege of supporting first-gen students from low-income backgrounds to get into and through college and secure a mobilizing first job. The organization was entering a stage of rapid growth and she was fortunate to be able to grow with the organization by taking on program leadership roles as Bottom Line became a national organization and expanded to new regions.

In her previous role, Sarah had the opportunity to participate in APA as an executive team leader, and directly benefited from the support and thought leadership of this dynamic community. Through participation in a Leadership Cohort and multiple Program Tracks, she has firsthand experience of the benefits of these offerings and is excited to bring this lens as well as her subject matter expertise in postsecondary to career pathways to the initiatives and programming that will drive economic mobility for students.

Sarah lives in the Boston area with her husband and two sons. Outside of work she enjoys cheering on her kids in hockey rinks, baseball fields, and soccer sidelines as well as reading, cooking, gardening (with an affinity for growing dahlias), and hiking in the Blue Hills.