Sarah Crawford

Sarah Crawford has over twenty-five years of experience as an advisor, advocate, and litigator in the field of equal employment opportunity. 

In her current roles as Principal Advisor for Working IDEAL and as the founder and principal of Crawford Strategies, Sarah provides advice to ensure fair pay and diverse, equitable, and inclusive workplaces. Sarah also provides training that is customized to meet the needs of clients and research to promote sound policies and practices that work. Sarah has worked with large and small companies, universities, non-profits, governments, unions, and other organizations across the nation.

At Working IDEAL, Sarah provides a range of services, including DEI assessments, leadership coaching, training, and workplace investigations. She is a thought leader on inclusive workplaces, fair hiring, effective complaint procedures, and pay equity. In working with clients to develop an equitable approach to compensation, she conducts comparative analyses and develops fair and transparent pay policies and practices. She has worked with Fortune 500 companies to develop diversity and inclusion roadmaps, with government organizations to create more inclusive hiring and promotion practices, and with nonprofits to develop culture codes and other policies and procedures that promote fair pay.

Sarah served as a senior attorney advisor to the chair of the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission. Sarah provided counsel regarding the full range of employment discrimination laws enforced by the Commission. Her portfolio included groundbreaking work to advance equal pay through pay data reporting and to promote new approaches to prevent and address workplace harassment.

At the National Partnership for Women & Families, Sarah directed the Workplace Fairness Program, where she handled issues surrounding fair pay, pregnancy discrimination, sexual harassment, and equal opportunity. In this role, she was a lead drafter of the Pregnant Workers’ Fairness Act and advocated for legislation and policies impacting working women and their families.

Sarah also served as senior counsel for the Employment Discrimination Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights under Law. She litigated employment discrimination cases at trial and on appeal, including as amicus curiae and as a member of the lead counsel’s team before the United States Supreme Court. She testified before Congress and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and advocated for legislation and policies aimed at strengthening equal employment opportunity protections. Sarah also co-chaired the Employment Task Force of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights. She received her undergraduate and law degrees from William and Mary in Virginia.

Sarah began her legal career with the United States Department of Labor as an attorney with the Civil Rights Division of the Solicitor’s Office, where she litigated systemic employment discrimination cases involving federal contractors and recipients of federal financial assistance and provided advice on policy matters. 

She has been a frequent speaker and author on topics relating to diversity, inclusion, and equity, and she has been interviewed by numerous media outlets, including ABC News, Forbes, the Huffington Post, MSNBC, Ms. Magazine, the National Law Journal, NPR, U.S. & World News Report, and the Wall Street Journal.