About Sarah Donnell
Sarah Donnell is a public presence, presentation skills, and leadership coach; a facilitator; and an ordained interfaith chaplain. She is a certified yoga instructor, an acting teacher, and a multi-disciplinary writer and communications professional.
As a theatre artist, she has performed on stages from New York City to Madrid, and has collaborated with teams large and small to shepherd stories from seed concepts to fully realized live performances. A theatre-for-social-change specialist, she develops programs and writes scripts that get delivered across the country in workshops, facilitated performances, video, online trainings, retreats, and VR.
As a speaker and facilitator, Sarah has addressed tens of thousands of people. She specializes in broaching uncomfortable topics and bringing groups through difficult transitions by helping them tap into a spirit of authenticity, compassion, playful experimentation, and creativity. Because of her innovative methods and accessible style, she is frequently recruited to train other facilitators.
Her work as an educator has had her leading classrooms of the very young, the very old, and everyone in between, though she is most rooted in adult education. She has a knack for creating spaces in which the dignity, vulnerability, and goofiness of each student can be in the mix. She has helped adults who could not write a complete sentence go on to pen their life stories, and has connected hundreds of acting students to greater confidence in and awareness of their own unique gifts.
In her coaching practice, she has guided tech innovators to articulate their visions to international audiences; leaders to land C-level promotions; actors to book roles in major Netflix series; salespeople to close multi-million-dollar deals; and senior leaders to implement equity practices to change culture and structure within their teams.
As an interfaith chaplain, Sarah has worked with people severely marginalized by mental illness and poverty and has served as a spiritual companion to people on their deathbeds. With her attunement to major life transitions, she is frequently called on to weave together the meaningful stories of couples and guide them as they cross the threshold of marriage.
Sarah holds a Bachelor of Arts in Dramatic Art from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and a Master of Arts in Social Change from the Graduate Theological Union’s Starr King School for the Ministry in Berkeley. She trained in pastoral counseling at Atlanta’s Training and Counseling Center at St. Luke’s and in chaplaincy at Oakland’s The Chaplaincy Institute, where she remains clergy in good standing.
Read more about Sarah as a coach here, as a facilitator here, as a chaplain here, or as a theatre artist here.