Sara is the Deputy Head of Mission (Foreign Policy and National Security) at the Embassy of Canada to the United States in Washington, D.C. As part of the Embassy’s senior executive leadership team, Sara oversees programs dealing with foreign and defence policy, energy and environment, public safety, border security, immigration, intelligence liaison and law enforcement.
Prior to assuming this position, she held various executive positions in Ottawa at the headquarters of Global Affairs Canada. Most recently, she served as Director General, South America and Inter-American Affairs Bureau (2020-2022); in this capacity, she was also Canada’s National Coordinator for the US-hosted Summit of the Americas, which took place in Los Angeles, California in June 2022. Previously, she was Chief of Staff to the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2017-2020) and Chief of Staff to the Assistant Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs (2016-2017). In 2017, Sara established and headed up the Canada-US Engagement Task Force, for which she and her team received the 2018 Public Service Award of Excellence for Exemplary effort under Extraordinary circumstances.
Other assignments at headquarters include two years deployed to the Privy Council Office in the Foreign and Defence Policy Secretariat, responsible for Latin America and the Caribbean.
A career diplomat, Sara began her career at the Canadian Embassy in Washington DC, where she was responsible for federal-provincial-territorial relations. From 2009-2012, she served as the as Head of the Political Section in Bogota, Colombia, and was Head of the Political Section in at the Canadian Embassy in Santiago, Chile from 2014-2016.
Born and raised in Montreal, Quebec, Sara holds a BA (Honours) in History from McGill University and a Masters in East European Studies from University College London, UK. Sara speaks English, French and Spanish.