Sarah Blanton joined The Alliance for Diplomacy and Justice as a Programs and Operations Specialist in May 2025. She draws from her prior experience as a Senior Program Assistant at the U.S. Institute of Peace, as a USAID contractor, and as a grant writer for a community-based nonprofit to provide support across The Alliance’s workstreams. She earned her M.A. in Ethics, Peace, and Human Rights from American University in 2022 and her B.A. in Global Affairs from George Mason University in 2021. She developed her lifelong commitment to the field while working as a human rights research assistant, interviewing student activists, and winning a research grant to study student labor activism. She is a co-author on College student activists' perceptions of mattering to campus educators, published in 2024 at the Journal of Student Affairs Research and Practice.