Who’s behind Nantahala Strategies?

Sara Parker (she/they)
Founder, CEO

Sara is a brand and marketing strategist with almost a decade of experience working on behalf of tens of millions of users. She landed in the great state of strategy unexpectedly, by way of a degree in Political Engagement and Attachment Theory from NYU’s Gallatin School of Individualized Study, launching two nonprofits, working in local NYC politics, and a crash course in rapidly growing a world-renowned brand by failing fast and trusting the data as Head of Consumer Innovation and Engagement for Charity Navigator.

Sara is currently Creative Strategist and Associate Director at The Story Lab, a team at LG Electronics’ in-house ad agency focused on elevating LG's creative work to unlock creativity and push for narratives and brand messaging that help folks understand why they need our products in their lives.

She excels at simplifying the complex, translating jargon-heavy, research-based stories into messages and strategies that resonate with target audiences.

Sara has spearheaded client projects with Nielsen, the Gates Foundation, Omnicom agencies, a NYT-bestselling author, Jeff and Tricia Raikes Foundation, Droga5, IBM, Oracle, Google.org, DonorsChoose, Airbnb, GlobalGiving, Microsoft, and more.

And her work has garnered press coverage and national recognition from former President Obama, The New York Times (and their Editorial Board), Allure, TeenVogue, CNBC, Buzzfeed News, The Charlotte Observer, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, Consumer Reports, Business Insider, WIRED, Money, Yahoo! News, and others.

MY VALUES

OUTSIDE OF WORK

Sara lives in a valley between the mountains deep in upstate New York, where a two-finger lift off of the steering wheel of her pickup truck is the country “hello.”

A member of 1% for the Planet and personally trained by former US Vice President Al Gore as a Climate Reality Leader for his Climate Reality Project, she focuses on supporting conservation, community building, and reciprocal regeneration in her work and personal life. Sara volunteers with local water and land conservation organizations, whether to protect glass eel migration patterns in the Hudson River, to reduce microplastics entering waterways, or to prevent the spread of invasive species like Zebra Mussels. If Sara isn’t working on strategy for the world’s most interesting brands (yours included, of course), she’s probably outdoors: on land or on water.

You can find her moonlighting as Team Mom for her U.S. Masters’ swim team, open water swimming in a different local lake every week until the water freezes, and writing about how we live in reciprocity with the land and the water.

A twenty-first-century Eliza Thornberry, Sara spent her youth as a competitive horseback rider, ranking in the top 50 in the country; received her Level 2 Reiki training certification; and has a certain panache for getting out of trouble in different languages: she’s fluent in German and French; squeaks by pretty well in Spanish, Italian, and Arabic; and can probably understand what you’re saying in any Romance- or Germanic-derived language.

Ask her about the latest book she’s read, what food she’s bringing to her potluck this week, her 20,000-mile road trip around the United States, or how swim practice went.