President, Valhalla Foundation
Sara Allan, president of Valhalla Foundation, leads Valhalla’s people and strategy to drive meaningful and measurable improvement in outcomes across Valhalla’s five issue areas: early childhood development, K-12 education, environmental innovation, medical research & talent, and collaborative philanthropy. Before Valhalla, Sara was Director of US Education at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. There, she led the foundation’s work to expand research and development of promising solutions to longstanding teaching and learning challenges that prevent students from reaching their full potential. She also developed and drove the execution of program strategies across Early Learning, K-12 and Education Pathways.
Sara has worked in education for 20 years, and prior to philanthropy was a district-level leader at Portland Public Schools. Previously, she spent over a decade working in the private sector with the Boston Consulting Group and the Royal Bank of Canada. She serves as a board member and advisor to mission-focused organizations and was a recipient of the Broad Residency in Urban Education and a Presidential Leadership Scholar. Sara grew up in Canada and holds a Bachelor of Science (summa cum laude) from Trinity College at the University of Toronto and an MBA from the Ivey Business School at Western University (gold medallist). She is the proud mother of three young adults and splits her time between the Bay Area and Seattle.