Sara Livingston

Sara (she/her/hers) grew up in Erie, PA, but now calls Chicago home. She majored in Sociology/Anthropology and Spanish at Denison University. After graduating from Denison, she began teaching high school Spanish in Gary, Indiana, as part of Teach for America. Having developed some foreign language teaching strategies, she felt prepared to assist Ecuadorian English teachers by joining Peace Corps, Ecuador as a TEFL volunteer. While in Ecuador, Sara began cooking with her host family, taking culinary classes, and cooking at a Peruvian restaurant. From there, Sara turned toward culinary exploration, working in kitchens throughout Latin America and then in Chicago over the next three years. Sara is drawn to pursue an MSW in order to promote social justice in areas related to food access, labor rights, and education. As part of the Community-Based Initiative program, Sara hopes to learn from successful food-based social justice initiatives in Detroit to inform her future work in Chicago.