Sarah Pharaon

South Orange, NJ
Senior Director, International Coalition of Sites of Conscience
Wyoming Valley West Middle School (Kingston, PA); Wyoming Valley West High School (Plymouth, PA)
BA American Studies, Franklin and Marshall College; MA History Museum Studies, Cooperstown Graduate Program (SUNY Oneonta)
Art Valli; Mary Jean Tarrantini
93-94 (Group Project); 91-92 (Individual Project); 90-91 (Individual Project)
Digging through records at our local Historical Society; coming up with creative visual presentations; my brother helping me draw March of Dimes posters for my Salk vaccine exhibit; exchanging pins at nationals; awaiting results; and walking into the Smithsonian for the first time
NHD taught me research and presentation skills and began my love of local history. It was the first time that I thought critically about how to relay historical information visually - all vital to my current career.
I placed in the top two in our region; and top two in PA advancing to national competition in D.C. twice (93-94; 91-92)
I'm pretty sure I presented to local Rotary Clubs, but goodness it was a long time ago at this point!
"At the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, I direct work on issues of race, education equity and incarceration including From Brown v Board to Ferguson, a three-year collaboration between ten historic sites and their community partners to create dynamic youth public engagement programs that foster much-needed community dialogue on race, education equity and incarceration in the context of civil rights history. From 2010 - 2014, I led twenty five U.S. museums in the National Dialogues on Immigration project, an IMLS and NEH-funded initiative which linked sites across the country in hosting dialogues on contemporary immigration issues affecting their communities (www.dialoguesonimmigration.org).
Prior to this, I worked as Director of Education at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum, and was the founding curator of the Arab American National Museum (AANM.) I am a consulting trainer on dialogue and community engagement for the National Park Service and serve on the Leadership Council for the American Association for State and Local History."