​​About Sara

Sara McClellan is a lecturer for the University of Virginia Internship Placement Program (IPP). She also consults with public sector and nonprofit organizations on behalf of Engaged Advisors and Org Management Group. Previously, she served as the Hazel Cramer Endowed Chair in the Department of Public Policy and Administration at Sacramento State University. She teaches and consults in the areas of organizational communication, planning, leadership, and stakeholder engagement. 

Sara also served as Associate Director and Organizational Development Specialist for the California Comprehensive Center in the Comprehensive School Assistance Program at WestEd, an educational research, development, and service agency. She has also served as an adjunct professor for the Price School of Public Policy and the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism at the University of Southern California (USC). She earned her PhD in Organizational Communication at the University of Colorado at Boulder, her Master of Public Administration from USC, and a B.A. in Liberal Studies from CSU Monterey Bay.

Sara also worked as a deputy county administrative officer, personnel director, and First 5 director in northern California. She has conducted program evaluations, developed RFPs and grants, and facilitated planning processes for a wide range of public and nonprofit organizations. 

Specialties: Public administration; communication; organizational development; project management; university teaching; research; local government policy and operations; grant-writing; strategic planning; personnel management.

In her spare time, Sara enjoys hiking, kayaking, Zumba, cooking, and reading detective novels. She lives in Charlottesville, Virginia with her husband and their cats.