Alumni Profiles
Sarah Popelka ’14
“Bringing high levels of inquiry to the data I’m working with is something I learned to do at Crossroads.”
Sarah joined Crossroads in sixth grade to pursue two of her passions: art and science. As an Upper School student, she loved figure drawing class and learning about molecular structures in organic chemistry.
Sarah attended UCLA, where a growing interest in data science led her to earn a degree in geography with an emphasis in geospatial information systems and technology. In college, she worked as an intern with the City of Santa Monica, analyzing data tracking how people moved through public transportation networks to see how it might drive city policy. She liked the hands-on, meaningful impact of working in local government and moved to Washington, D.C., to pursue a career connecting data science and public policy.
Sarah was working for the City of Alexandria, Virginia, when the COVID-19 pandemic struck. She recalled, “I did a complete 180 to focus on epidemiology. I applied the skills I had been using for environment and transportation projects to disease modeling.” Sarah built a series of models for the city’s health department that allowed it to map local COVID cases, using socioeconomic and health equity data to ensure that the city provided COVID response services to communities in need.
Sarah earned a master’s in urban governance at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and is currently a geospatial developer/team lead at Innovate! Inc., a consulting firm in Washington. Her recent projects include building a plastics recycling supply chain tracking system and designing an AI-based flood prediction tool to help homeowners and city planners make responsible decisions about land use. She will soon begin a new position with the United States Digital Service, working to modernize federal government technology.
Sarah credits Crossroads with teaching her to thoughtfully question existing systems and whom they affect. “Bringing high levels of inquiry to the data I’m working with is something I learned to do at Crossroads,” she said. What else does this self-described “data-driven problem solver” value about her Crossroads education? Studying Latin. “I found reading and interpreting computer code very similar to translating Latin texts!” she explained.
