Sarah was born and raised in Bar Harbor, Maine. She attended Connecticut College in New London, CT, where she worked in the laboratory of Prof. Timo Ovaska, and graduated with honors in 2001. In the fall of that year, Sarah enrolled in graduate studies at Yale University and joined the research group of Prof. John Wood. She earned her Ph.D. in chemistry in 2006; her thesis detailed the total synthesis of the natural product welwitindolinone A isonitrile. For her postdoctoral work, Sarah pursued studies in the field of asymmetric catalysis as an NIH fellow, working with Prof. Eric Jacobsen at Harvard University.