Sarah Klerk

Chief Strategy Officer

Sarah is dedicated to developing public/private partnership approaches and policies to overcome economic and workforce development challenges facing regions. Sarah believes that education and workforce development must work together to improve both the outcomes for individual learners and the competitiveness of regional businesses. Sarah is an advocate for equity and works to ensure all young people have the information they need to make good decisions about educational and skills attainment.

Sarah comes to The Kalamazoo Promise from Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) where she worked as a Senior Policy Associate. At CSW, Sarah helped develop and facilitate the Detroit Opportunity Youth Collaborative and provided technical assistance to regions and states developing sector partnerships. Before working at CSW, Sarah was an Associate with Workforce Strategy Center (WSC), where she helped communities develop career pathway programs.

Prior to working with WSC, she worked at the Chicago Jobs Council (CJC) to ensure access to employment and career advancement opportunities for people living in poverty. At CJC, Sarah’s main role was to help coordinate the Opportunity Chicago Initiative.

Sarah, the granddaughter of the Gal from Kalamazoo, started her career here in Kalamazoo, MI as a Special Projects Coordinator at the W.E. Upjohn Institute.

In 2013, Sarah published Connecting the Dots Between Education, Interests, and Careers: Grades 7-10. She earned a Master of Public Policy degree from the University of Chicago.