Sara Zier

Statewide Director of Legal Services

Growing up, I was taught that education is everything. My family saw education as a great equalizer and a pathway out of poverty. For them it was. There wasn’t a single moment when I woke to the fact that this wasn’t a reality for everyone. I am still learning. But early on I saw inequities in public education from my own family’s privileged conversations about needing to move so we could go to a “good” public school or witnessing bullying and harassment against friends and finding systemic injustice (for example, at the time, sexual orientation wasn’t protected in my school district’s anti-discrimination policy). I started to advocate as a student – we got that policy changed – and haven’t stopped. I eventually became a lawyer, studying at New York University School of Law, after getting my undergraduate degree at University of Washington in English/Creative Writing and Political Science. What I love about being a lawyer for young people is that my job is to support youth in standing up for their rights and challenging the inequities they face. I still get to be an advocate for more equitable systems (public education, healthcare, etc.), and I get to do that in collaboration with and at the direction of young people whose rights are at stake.