Director of the Center for Wellness and Restoration
Sarah is a licensed clinical social worker, alcohol and drug counselor, and certified recovery coach supervisor with over 15 years in the field. She has extensive experience treating multi-stressed clients and families in a variety of settings including community-based, police stations, drug courts, residential, acute care facilities, jails, and prisons. Using a collective impact model, she works to build the capacity of the community to address its top identified health concerns (addiction, structural oppression, lack of economic mobility, poverty, racism, lack of stable housing, limited access to healthy foods, and limited access to effective mental health services) by working to address the root causes of these public health issues.
Throughout her career, Sarah has been at the forefront of the systemic shift from reactive and punitive to preventative and restorative policy. Sarah has a long track record of implementing and advocating for harm-reduction practices with a focus on equitable access to care. She created a youth enrichment program to increase youth protective factors, now an official diversion program for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. Utilizing a harm reduction approach, she helped develop the addiction track treatment groups for the Metro Boston Department of Youth Services (DYS) and created an alternative to suspension program at Charlestown High School for students with chronic marijuana use which she is currently working on replicated across the district. She helped create and remains an active participant in the Charlestown Division of the Boston Municipal Court’s Recovery Court which has the highest number of participants in Suffolk County. In 2019, Sarah was appointed by the MA Executive Office of Health and Human Services to serve on the Taxonomy Commission to review evidenced-based treatments for individuals with substance use disorders, mental illness, or co-occurring disorders.
Outside of her work with TPP, she is the Director of Community Engagement and Partnerships at Mass General Brigham and the Director of Charlestown Coalition, a community coalition that addresses the social determinants of health inequities. She also maintains a small private practice and serves as a social work expert vendor for federal and state public defenders. She provides trauma and substance use evaluations and is called to testify in addiction-related criminal and child protection matters. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction and Recovery (MOAR) and was the Board President for the MA Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW-MA) from 2018-2021. Sarah provides regular pieces of training to lawyers, addiction professionals, community health workers, and social workers across the state and has become a zealous advocate for health equity, criminal justice reform, the use of science-based approaches to address drug use and addiction, and for dismantling the systemic factors at the foundation of both racial and economic inequities
Throughout her career, Sarah has been at the forefront of the systemic shift from reactive and punitive to preventative and restorative policy. Sarah has a long track record of implementing and advocating for harm-reduction practices with a focus on equitable access to care. She created a youth enrichment program to increase youth protective factors, now an official diversion program for the Suffolk County District Attorney’s Office. Utilizing a harm reduction approach, she helped develop the addiction track treatment groups for the Metro Boston Department of Youth Services (DYS) and created an alternative to suspension program at Charlestown High School for students with chronic marijuana use which she is currently working on replicated across the district. She helped create and remains an active participant in the Charlestown Division of the Boston Municipal Court’s Recovery Court which has the highest number of participants in Suffolk County. In 2019, Sarah was appointed by the MA Executive Office of Health and Human Services to serve on the Taxonomy Commission to review evidenced-based treatments for individuals with substance use disorders, mental illness, or co-occurring disorders.
Outside of her work with TPP, she is the Director of Community Engagement and Partnerships at Mass General Brigham and the Director of Charlestown Coalition, a community coalition that addresses the social determinants of health inequities. She also maintains a small private practice and serves as a social work expert vendor for federal and state public defenders. She provides trauma and substance use evaluations and is called to testify in addiction-related criminal and child protection matters. She currently serves on the Board of Directors for the Massachusetts Organization for Addiction and Recovery (MOAR) and was the Board President for the MA Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers (NASW-MA) from 2018-2021. Sarah provides regular pieces of training to lawyers, addiction professionals, community health workers, and social workers across the state and has become a zealous advocate for health equity, criminal justice reform, the use of science-based approaches to address drug use and addiction, and for dismantling the systemic factors at the foundation of both racial and economic inequities