Sarah Tseng has over a decade of experience working as an urban planner for federal, regional, and local government agencies as well as organizing with grassroots community groups. In both her government and community work, she seeks to build collective power and action. As policy director, she develops and reviews policies to ensure racial equity is embedded in city systems. 

Before joining the ORE, Sarah was a project manager in strategic planning and policy at TransLink, the regional transportation authority in Vancouver, Canada. She was a technical lead for the development of a $7 billion transportation plan, the largest approved expansion of transit service in the agency’s history. She also organized staff into a multiracial equity caucus to identify gaps in services and policies, resulting in dedicated budget and headcount for agency-wide equity initiatives. For this effort, she received the Canadian Urban Transit Association award for excellence in leadership. She previously worked at Foothill Transit, LA County Metro, and the Federal Transit Administration.

Outside of her government work, Sarah has been an organizer on community campaigns against displacement and gentrification in Los Angeles and Vancouver Chinatowns. She was a board member for Yarrow Intergenerational Society for Justice, expanding their membership structure beyond youth volunteers to include low-income Chinese immigrant seniors. She was also a founding member of Chinatown Community for Equitable Development, a multiethnic volunteer collective to build grassroots power, where she chaired the coordinating committee and served on a community-labor campaign coalition.

Sarah’s approach to her work has been shaped by mentorship from elders, peers, and youth in the Asian American Movement and their lifelong commitment to collective liberation for all peoples. She received an MA in urban planning from UCLA. She lives with her partner in San Francisco and is grateful to once again be close to her family across the Bay Area.