Sarah D. Carlson

About Sarah D. Carlson

I equip people to claim the power of their potential in a world that desperately needs am a self-advocacy expert, an inspirational speaker, adjunct professor, and woman on a mission. I started my journey after graduating from Harvard Law School by going to a job on Wall Street and quickly rejecting that professional life for a more wholehearted one. I left my job and health insurance as a Wall Street attorney and never looked back. I first went to volunteer.While living in a tent and building schools and water filters in Haiti, I reconnected to my values, and I returned to become a career coach and adjunct professor at a top 25 law school. There, I coached individual law students and created coursework to help students identify their professional strengths, interests, and values and taught the invaluable tools of self-advocacy. My course was made mandatory for first-year students. I next had the privilege of working with with purpose driven students at Candler School of Theology, and finally I worked to integrate these principles into coursework at Duke’s Pratt School of Engineering for their masters populations. I am now writing my book The Five Principles of Effective Self-Advocacy, which will be available in Summer 2025, and I am accepting new clients and speaking engagements!

Experience

1. Director of Career Development

   Duke University Pratt School Of Engineering

   May 2022 — Present

   Leading a fanstastic team to equip Pratt Master\'s students to advocate for themselves and purposefully navigate their careers in a changing market through innovative coursework, workshops, coaching, on-demand resources, and more.

Education

• University of Arizona

  Bachelor's degree, Political Science and Spanish

  1999 — 2003

• Harvard Law School

  Juris Doctor, Law

  2005 — 2007