Principal
Sarah is a founding partner at Treaty Oak Strategies (TOS) which provides effective strategic counsel on health care policy. Sarah helps her clients navigate the legislature, health and human services, provider relations, and the Medicaid and CHIP programs to include telemedicine, telehealth and telemonitoring services. Prior to helping found TOS, she was the Director of Government Affairs and Regulatory Services for the Texas Association for Home Care and Hospice (TAHC&H) for 6 years. While at TAHC&H Sarah developed the state legislative priorities for Board of Directors approval. She also worked on federal legislative issues surrounding Medicare. She was the staff liaison for several of the association's policy committees developing strategies to advance policies and changes to statutes, both federal and state, that support the home care and hospice industry. Sarah served for 5 years on the Electronic Health Advisory Committee (eHAC) for HHSC as the Home Telemonitoring Expert. She has experience with a broad array of Texas Medicaid programs as she worked as a Policy Advisor in the Office of Policy in the Medicaid/CHIP division. Sarah worked for 11 years at Disability Rights Texas (DRTX) (formerly Advocacy, Inc.) in their policy unit advocating to the legislature and state agencies regarding the civil rights of Texans with disabilities in the areas of housing, education, accessibility and transportation. During her tenure at DRTX, Sarah was selected to serve on the Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) Advisory Committee by then Governor Rick Perry. Sarah also served as the Chair of the Disability Policy Consortium for a two-year term. In 1998 Sarah first arrived in Austin, TX where she worked for 2 years as a Disability Determination Examiner for Disability Determination Services at the legacy agency of the Texas Rehabilitation Commission (TRC). Within TRC, Sarah moved to being a Rehabilitation Counselor before joining DRTX.
Sarah has her Bachelors of Liberal Arts (BA) degree with a concentration in psychology from Austin College in Sherman, TX. She earned her Masters of Science degree in rehabilitation counseling from the University of North Texas (UNT). While attending night school at UNT in Denton, TX, Sarah worked full-time for Scottish Rite for Children in Dallas, TX as a Child Life Specialist focusing on the social, emotional, developmental and educational needs of children and teenagers in the hospital, surgery and outpatient setting to help reduce fear and promote coping during the visit. This was the job that launched Sarah’s career in the healthcare field.
Lastly, Sarah has given back to her community by voluntarily serving for 8 years on the Austin Tenants Council as both a member of the Council and as the Board Chair for 5 years in which she led the Board with completing their fiduciary responsibilities and guided them through the process of hiring a new Executive Director.
