Sarah Pierson

Sarah Pierson is the Chief Development and External Affairs Officer at Upstream USA. She is a senior nonprofit leader with nearly two decades of experience in development, strategy and operations. Sarah started her development career at her alma mater, Brown University, leading three record-breaking 50th reunion fundraising campaigns at her alma mater and engaging major donors in the Bay Area and Pacific Northwest. From there, she led the corporate and foundation relations team at Boston College, working with academic leaders to secure funding for centers, programs and research. In 2009, Sarah left higher education advancement to support a range of innovative approaches to social impact. She spent six years at Be the Change working on fundraising, partnerships and strategy for cross-sector, bipartisan campaigns and initiatives to get social issues unstuck. Most recently, she served as Senior Advisor to GreenLight Fund, a venture philanthropy organization working at the intersection of community need and social innovation. She built internal capacity for development and communications as the organization raised more than $20M for expansion and national operations. Sarah is a tireless ambassador for the causes she cares about. She is the co-founder and board member of The Uncomfortable Conversation, a nonprofit YouTube channel featuring conversations about sexual violence prevention and response, and an author of a book about skills-based sexual harassment prevention, Breaking the Silence Habit: Uncomfortable Conversations in the #MeToo Workplace. In the early mornings and weekends, you might find her doing CrossFit workouts in her garage gym, walking one of several dogs in her life or discussing the Constitution or unicorns with her two young children. Sarah graduated from Brown University with a degree in gender studies and has an MBA from Boston College.

Uncomfortable conversations

Equitable contraceptive care is basic healthcare.