Born and raised in Southern California, Sara had the conviction to create change at a young age after her experience with childhood cancer. She lost her hair, independence and opportunity to have a normal childhood. After reflecting on her experiences, skills, and passions she became interested in social issues regarding health and mental health. Through her education at Whittier College, she especially gained an affinity for the types of programs and resources provided to high risk populations affected by mental and health issues. Sara worked to provide innovative services to facilitate development, support, and vocational opportunities for individuals on the autism spectrum and with developmental challenges. She designed and implemented movement based activities to empower young people to develop healthy coping strategies in an effort to bring emotional and social change. After graduating Summa Cum Laude with department honors from Whittier, Sara moved to the big city in 2015 to pursue her Master’s degree in Social Work from NYU Silver School of Social Work. During this time, Sara worked as a medical social worker in Manhattan and the Bronx. There she assisted patients in navigating the complex healthcare system while also learning effective coping strategies for the mental and emotional strains of having a challenging diagnosis. In addition to her work at SSKIM, Sara works as a Social Worker in Early Intervention providing home-based services to young people ages 0 to 3 years and their families to support development. Sara also continues to facilitate community integration and inclusion for Autistic persons providing direct support in the community and actively working with individuals and their families to attain the individual’s social emotional goals. 

With over 20 years of competitive dance experience in jazz, hip hop, contemporary and pom-pom, Sara has had the opportunity to compete on a state, national and international level. While at Whittier College Sara served as the Artistic Director of the college dance team. Sara continues to utilize the power of dance and movement to bring joy, and self-expression to both the neuro-diverse and neuro-typical community. One can often find Sara jamming to her favorite songs in the subway or learning new dance styles from the communities’ Latin dance scene. In addition, Sara has been training in boxing to bridge together sports and mental health. Bilingual in Spanish, Sara continues to enhance her language skills to help her make therapy accessible to other people of Latin descent. Sara is excited to combine her passion for dance, boxing and movement with therapy to finally have a creative and fun space that feels welcoming to herself and others!