A native Washingtonian, Sarah Elwell is a product of Washington, D.C. public schools (DCPS) where she spent her career for 22 years after graduating from Swarthmore College with a major in English/Education and a concentration in Black studies. She served the city's youth for eight years as an English teacher before receiving a grant to pursue her Master’s at Catholic University of America in Library and Information Science. She then spent 11 years as a librarian in DCPS and 3 years as the professional development coordinator at the Washington Teachers’ Union (WTU). Over her career, she created original content and adapted content to serve diverse learners across the curriculum and for multiple grade levels. Sarah became an American Federation of Teachers (AFT) national trainer in 2009, helping to co-author a course on instructional strategies and a module on engaging online teaching strategies with the AFT. She was a CityBridge Education Innovation Fellow, a Share My Lesson ambassador, DCPS travel abroad ambassador, a new librarian mentor and a member of the CCSSO National Teacher of the Year selection committee. She has worked with the DCPS central office English Language Arts and Social Studies teams in curriculum development and served as the co-executive director of DC Future Business Leaders of America for 4 years as a strong proponent of career and technical education. Now she works as an assistant director of professional learning at the AFT and was recently accepted into the Learning Forward Academy, Class of 2026, as a Sybil Yastrow Academy Scholarship recipient.
AFT Course Coordinator:
Instructional Strategies that Work for All Disciplines
Strategies for Student Success
Facilitating Equity-Based Professional Learning
Writing for K-5 and 6-12
Literacy at Home series for families
AFT Regional Point: Southern region, excluding Florida and Texas
