I’m Sara Erickson. I’m an operator. My job is to make strategy real, to build the systems, the clarity, and the execution infrastructure that organizations need to actually perform.
I’ve spent my career in education. Not because it was the easy path, but because it’s where the stakes are highest and the margin for error is lowest. That environment shaped everything about how I think and how I work.
My Story
I didn’t plan to become an operator. I started as a Teach For America corps member in South Los Angeles, standing in front of a classroom trying to figure out how to help kids who needed more than the system was giving them.
That experience changed me. It made me obsessed with one question: why do some organizations actually work, and why do most fall short? Not the strategy. Not the vision. The day-to-day systems that determine whether anything gets done.
That question led me to co-found the Gabriella Charter School, which went on to win national recognition for the way it served its community. It led me to lead organizing for the largest school board election in U.S. history. And in 2019 it brought me to Amira Learning, where I’ve spent six years building the execution infrastructure for one of edtech’s most promising companies.
At Amira I’ve served as VP of Customer Success, SVP of Operations, and now Chief of Staff. Each role has given me a fuller picture of what it actually takes to build an organization that delivers on its mission.
How I Work
I’m not a person who values motion for the sake of motion. I care about decision velocity. Making the right calls quickly, with the right information, and with the right people accountable. I think about clarity of ownership over org charts. I measure outcomes, not activity. I push for fewer priorities and a higher bar on each one.
One example: every week at Amira, I run a company-wide all-hands. It sounds simple, but getting it right is a craft. The format, the timing, the tone. All of it shapes whether people feel connected to the mission or just like they showed up to another meeting. Especially in a virtual-first company, those moments are the culture. You either design them deliberately or you lose the thing that makes a team a team.
I hold a BA from UCLA, an MA from Loyola Marymount, and a Master’s in Management from the Stanford Graduate School of Business. But honestly, most of what I know I learned by doing the work.
What I Believe
Strategy is only as good as the system behind it. Clarity beats consensus. Ownership beats activity. And the best leaders I’ve worked with don’t just set direction. They build the conditions for everyone around them to perform.
I believe education is the most important lever we have. And I believe the people willing to do the unglamorous work, the systems, the processes, the hard conversations, are the ones who actually move it forward.
That’s what I’m here to do. And I’m just getting started.
Keep Reading
I write about execution, leadership, and the hard work of building things that last. Click here to visit my blog.