Dr. Sarah Federman has cross-sector expertise in analytics, sustainability, and landscape resiliency.

She has a track record of building analytical approaches to understanding complex systems that drive equitable and climate-smart solutions to challenges facing humans and the environment.

Background & Bio

Combining passion with a deep technical knowledge of the patterns and processes underlying ecological dynamics, Dr. Federman contributed to Federal R&D Policy for landscape resiliency, agricultural innovation, and the circular carbon economy as a AAAS Science & Technology Policy Fellow with the USDA’s Office of the Chief Scientist. Subsequently, in private industry she led, developed, and implemented data-driven continuous improvement frameworks for sustainability strategy to enable responsible vertical scaling for Plenty, an indoor agricultural technology startup.

As a consultant, Dr. Federman developed educational materials for massive open online courses on plant biology for the Oak Spring Garden Foundation. She has additionally consulted for the Natural Resources Defense Council in Beijing on Sino-African illicit wildlife trafficking and Earth Justice on chemical pesticide use in New York State. Dr. Federman holds a Ph.D. from Yale University’s Department of Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, a M.S. in forest science from the Yale School of the Environment, and a B.A. in Biology from Barnard College. Her graduate studies were supported by the National Science Foundation’s Graduate Student Research Fellowship Program. She has managed multilateral teams and collaborations in Peru, Madagascar, and Trinidad and Tobago.