Sarah is a Senior Analyst in the U.S. Program, where she researches, analyses and writes about U.S. foreign policy and national security issues as they relate to Crisis Group’s mission to prevent and end deadly conflict, with a focus on U.S. security assistance, U.S. military policy, and use of force under domestic and international law.

Before coming to Crisis Group, Sarah served for more than four years as Associate General Counsel at the Department of Defense’s (DoD) Office of General Counsel (OGC), International Affairs, where she advised on domestic and international legal issues related to U.S. national security and the activities of the U.S. armed forces. Sarah was the lead OGC attorney for the planning and conduct of DoD activities on the continent of Africa and was counsel to the Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for African Affairs. Sarah was also the lead OGC attorney for DoD humanitarian assistance, foreign disaster relief, the Leahy law, stabilisation, peacekeeping, and Women, Peace and Security issues. From 2020 to 2021, Sarah taught international law as an adjunct professor for the Georgetown University Law Center. From 2015 to 2017, Sarah served as Counselor to the Secretary of Homeland Security. Sarah has also worked for the International Committee of the Red Cross, the White House Office of Legislative Affairs, Human Rights First and the American Civil Liberties Union.

• U.S. national security law and policy
• International law (eg, use of force, human rights, humanitarian law/law of armed conflict) 
• U.S. security assistance and restrictions on security assistance, including the "Leahy laws", the coup restriction, end-use monitoring, and the Conventional Arms Transfer policy.

• English
• Sign language, conversational