My name is Sarah and I am called into collaboration with Presente! Maine through community ties that have deepened over many years.  I value connection and believe relationships are true change agents, healing bodies and binding us to each other’s liberation.

My story began in Glen Cove, in Rockport, Maine but I was raised as a Portlander after my family moved from the midcoast to be closer to employment opportunities. I attended Portland Public Schools and stayed in New England until traveling to live in Cochabamba, Bolivia, where I cleaned up my Spanish and fell in love with organizing. Upon my return and witnessing how development and politics displace a broad range of Portlanders, I dove into community work. I was employed in the mental health field for several years, mostly with unhoused and immigrant adults, before I ventured out to tend to my mental health and gain inspiration. A huge trip from Maine to Mexico in an old ’89 VW Jetta (my first car) fostered a love of the road, experience as a farmer and an interpreter, and so much mentorship. 

I settled for a while in Durham, North Carolina, a true home, where I provided therapy in a community clinic serving Latinx families. I’m a clinical social worker and alcohol and drug counselor by trade. I support change-makers and dreamers, many of whom are from Latin America originally, in their recoveries from substances and trauma and towards their preferred journeys.  A vibrant part of my ancestry still connects me to the midcoast, where some of my ancestors relied on strenuous seafood processing jobs. In my current role, I support the well-being of people from Central American countries who find similar challenging employment to sustain lives in Maine. My work aligns with the Presente team’s innate knowledge that healthcare is a human right and must be holistic, affirming the whole of our humanity. 

I prefer a life based on rituals and relationships. I enjoy obsessing over garden soil, belting out a melodramatic ballad, and putting on miles swimming in the open ocean. I am a mother to an energetic boy who is my compass through all storms on this trek.