Sarah Ovenden ’81 Co-chair, Committee on Trustees and Governance

After arriving at Gould straight off the plane from Istanbul, Turkey where she grew up, Sarah managed to (barely) survive three Maine winters before graduating and continuing on to Hampshire College. There, she received a degree in Psychology and Women’s Studies, with a particular emphasis in deinstitutionalization and community mental health care. She spent many years working in the Massachusetts human services system, before transitioning into working on human services, health care, and public housing policy issues for the Massachusetts State Senate. Other career adventures have included directing one of the nation’s first peer-run, college rape crisis centers, coordinating child abuse prevention and education programs for a Children’s Advocacy Center, grant writing and communications work for a community hospital, and establishing community food security initiatives – a very circuitous path to her current business and passion: Roots on the Rails, a boutique travel business specializing in music-themed adventures on chartered vintage passenger trains and small group excursions to Cuba, Scotland, Wales and beyond.
 
Sarah joined the Gould Alumni Board in 2017, and then the Gould Board of Trustees in 2020. She currently co-chairs the Committee on Trustees and Governance and has been very involved in Gould’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Task Force since its inception.
 
Sarah currently lives in Guilford, VT where she continues to avoid the snow wherever possible, and when not traveling involves herself with advocacy efforts on several social justice issues and community initiatives, while furiously writing letters to Congress about the perils facing our national passenger rail system.