Sarah Jakiel
As the Director of Development and Strategic Partnerships, and a member of the leadership team, Sarah spearheads the collaborative’s fundraising strategy. She helps to build a thoughtful and intentional network of donors, partners, and philanthropists who are deeply committed to working collaboratively to end child marriage and increase gender equality.
Sarah is a feminist human rights leader, nonprofit executive, and strategist, with nearly twenty years of experience countering human trafficking and forced labor, early and child marriage, and gender inequality. She is experienced in organizational development and leadership with a demonstrated commitment to racial, gender, and economic justice, and scalable social impact.
Sarah specializes in strategic partnership advancement, fundraising, program design and implementation, and cultivating senior talent. Most recently, Sarah led Winrock International’s Human Rights, Education and Empowerment team which focused on delivering inclusive social and economic empowerment, education, and human rights development outcomes across Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Previously, Sarah served as Chief Program Officer at Polaris, where she spent 10 years leading program design and organization-wide impact strategy focused on reducing human trafficking in the United States. Sarah thrives on relationship building, problem solving, and collaboration where critical resources are directed towards frontline communities and the nexus of power and voice sits with local leadership that prioritizes women and girls’ engagement.
Sarah has an MA in Ethics, Peace, and Global Affairs from American University, and a BA in Political Science and French from the University of Virginia.