Specializations

  • Inclusive Program and Product Management
  • AI, Bias, and Ethics
  • Future of Work

Courses

  • IMT 570 - Data Driven Organizational Problem Solving For Information Management Professionals
  • INFO 380 - Product And Information Systems Management

Biography

Assistant Teaching Professor Sara Sanford has focused her career on harnessing the knowledge in information to drive meaningful action. As an educator and mentor, she is committed to helping others discover the tools to do the same.

Sara’s interdisciplinary approach to furthering the iSchool’s mission focuses on matching vision with practicality. She is passionate about leveraging data to eradicate inequities in employee and customer experiences, public policy and product design. In the classroom and in her research, she expands on these areas to focus on the societal impacts of research design, the role of sustainability in product development lifecycles, and the intersection of bias, ethics, and scaled AI.

She is most excited about helping students learn the skills that transform them into true information leaders. With years of applied, strategic leadership experience, Sara looks forward to helping students learn to persuasively articulate their vision, evaluate and mitigate risk, and value research-driven decision-making.

In addition to facilitating a meaningful Program/Product Management & Consulting specialization experience for MSIM students, Sara will also contribute to the iSchool’s growing focus on people analytics. As a consultant, she has partnered with clients to audit their algorithms for bias, develop intersectional frameworks for their People Analytics’ teams, and optimize their product development processes with inclusive customer journey frameworks. She also authored “Inclusion, Inc: How to Design Intersectional Equity into the Workplace,” released by Wiley in May 2022.

Education

  • MPA, International Management and Development, University of Washington, 2011
  • BA, English, Carleton College, 2007

Awards

  • Women Who Lead - Puget Sound Business Journal, 2019

Publications and Contributions

Presentations

  • Designing a Regenerative Future of Work (2022)
    Fifteen Seconds Festival - Graz, Austria
  • 15 Minutes of Brilliance (2019)
    The Living Future Institute’s Unconference - Seattle, WA
  • Measure What Matters: Data to Drive Workplace Equity (2019)
    State of Womxn of Color Summit - Seattle, WA
  • Writing Your Grant Proposal (2013)
    Evans School of Publics Affairs - Seattle, WA
  • Equity in Policy Making: Intersectionality, Pay, and Flexible Work
    Panel hosted by Senator Patty Murray - Seattle, WA