As McKnight’s inaugural director of strategic climate initiatives, Sarah Christiansen works to connect and amplify the climate strategies of McKnight’s programs and partners for influence and impact at national and global levels. Sarah engages peer funders and helps maximize opportunities to position and establish the Midwest as America’s heartland of climate action and a global hub for equitable climate innovation and progress.
Sarah joined McKnight in 2021 as the director of the Midwest Climate & Energy program. Her leadership in that role helped center the importance of an equitable clean energy transition in the Climate program, and she built a team comprised of strong leaders with diverse experiences and backgrounds who are prepared to move forward powerfully at this critical moment for climate implementation and action. She has worked closely with McKnight board members, senior leaders, and the Climate team to use every philanthropic tool available to reduce carbon pollution in the transportation, buildings, power, and agricultural sectors.
With a career that spans more than 30 years, Sarah is a seasoned philanthropic leader dedicated to finding multiple pathways toward achieving an equitable and carbon-neutral economy. Sarah has experience with a range of climate strategies, from place-based approaches to global solutions, as well as a focus on the nexus of climate change, equity, and democracy, helping to drive strategies and connections across sectors.
Notably, she served as a funder delegate for the Conference of the Parties (COP), the supreme decision-making body of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. In this role, she strategically supported leadership inside and outside the COP while bridging climate-resilient grassroots solutions with grasstops policy platforms in cities and rural lands.
Before joining McKnight, Sarah served as program director for the Solidago Foundation of Massachusetts. There, she cofounded the Climate and Clean Energy Equity Fund, which supports civic engagement, capacity building on climate equity policy, and narrative shift, and builds power in the communities most impacted by climate change. From Virginia to New Mexico to Minnesota and beyond, the work of her grantee partners has led to gains, including moving bold renewable energy portfolio standards, increasing energy efficiency for municipal buildings, and investing in climate-resilient public infrastructure, as well as other comprehensive shifts from government policymakers and business leaders forging a just transition to a clean energy economy.
A past Fulbright scholar in Cameroon, Sarah holds master of science in sustainable development and conservation biology from the University of Maryland, and a bachelor of science in ecology, evolution, and behavior from the University of Minnesota.
