Sarah Atkinson

As Senior Policy Manager for Hazard Resilience, Sarah leads SPUR’s research, advocacy, and education efforts to strengthen the Bay Area’s ability to prepare for and recover from climate and natural hazards—such as earthquakes, sea level rise, flooding, and wildfires. Prior to SPUR, she worked in environmental and business communications, green construction, food accessibility, and health research in both the Bay Area and Massachusetts. Her graduate studies focused on community resilience hubs, the role of social cohesion in disaster recovery, resilient housing, and comparing the adaptive capacity of private versus collective land ownership models. Grounded in a commitment to both her human and multispecies community in the Bay Area, Sarah works to embed sustainability and resilience into urban systems to help build a more healthy, just, and climate-ready region. Sarah began her advocacy work in this space as an undergrad at UC Berkeley where she helped implement zero-waste and sustainable food procurement initiatives. Sarah holds a Master’s in City and Regional Planning and a B.A. in Environmental Sciences from UC Berkeley.