Jill Sarah is an associate with a NYC-based executive search firm that serves the nonprofit sector exclusively.   Jill Sarah has assisted numerous nonprofit Boards in clarifying their organizational goals and identifying the leadership qualifications necessary to achieve these goals. She has interviewed hundreds of nonprofit leaders. In addition to her professional work with nonprofits, Jill Sarah is an active member and lay leader with a number of nonprofit organizations. She is a founding member of Mediators Beyond Borders, and is past Tri-Chairperson of the Association for Conflict Resolution’s Workplace Section. Her article entitled “Understanding Conflict in Nonprofits” is published in the Winter 2008 issue of the magazine of the Association for Conflict Resolution. Since 1991, Jill Sarah has served as a lay leader of a small dance-related nonprofit in New York City.

Before becoming an executive recruiter, Jill Sarah spent twelve years with Health Professionals and Allied Employees (HPAE) Local 5094 , New Jersey’s largest healthcare workers union.   Jill Sarah helped to resolve countless employee grievances using a collaborative approach involving the employee and supervisor. This process led to better understandings between the supervisor and employee and in many cases uncovered underlying causes of the conflict. This collaborative work created her determination to become a professional dispute resolution practitioner. She was certified in the Transformative mediation model in 2004 and currently serves as a professional mediator for the NJ State Civil Mediation Program, US Postal Service and Transportation Services Administration, and UPS.

Earlier in her career, Jill Sarah worked as a health educator. She designed and delivered hundreds of classes for staff of varying cultural and education levels. She has facilitated meetings with diverse groups with regard to age, gender, religion and ethnicity. Jill’s academic training is from the University of Massachusetts/Amherst where she received a Master’s Degree in Public Health. Her Bachelors degree in Nutrition is from Rochester Institute of Technology. Jill Sarah studied Into the Heart of Mediation at Harvard Negotiation Insight Initiative and Developing Healthy Nonprofit Organizations at Eastern Mennonite University. She has been trained in Non-Violent Communication, Formal Consensus Decision Making, Open Space Technology and Coaching Fundamentals.

Jill Sarah traveled to India in 1996 and to East Timor in 2000. She maintains a regular dance practice and has participated in several 10-day silent mediation retreats.