Sarah (Hera) Smith

Sarah Smith (Hera) has worked in New York City for over 20 years in government relations, advancement for secondary-tertiary institutions and as a producer of non-profit, purpose-lead events and initiatives both in the United States and her homeland, Aotearoa New Zealand. Her experience spans the management of events, indigenous led programs and symposia, the coordination of trade and official dignitary visits, international campaigning, fundraising, and building partnerships for social justice and language revitalization initiatives. Sarah comes to RPA following time in New Zealand as Executive Director of the Courageous Conversation Aotearoa Foundation, a racial equity charitable trust she helped to establish and launch. Prior to the pandemic, she brokered partnerships to establish the first New Zealand University internship program in the U.S., as well as a suite of collaborative events and fundraising campaigns for over a decade under her company MokoISM Inc. Preceding this, she spent ten years working for the New Zealand government at the Permanent Mission to the United Nations and at the Trade & Enterprise office.

Sarah has a BA in Women’s Studies and Political Science (Honors) from Hunter College, CUNY, and is a board member of the Courageous Conversation Global Foundation. The youngest in her family and first to attend college, she descends from the iwi/hapu (tribes/subtribes) of Ngāti Kuri, Ngāti Kahu, Ngāti Rehia, Ngāti Hine, Te Rarawa, Ngāpuhi and Te Aupōuri, and lives in Harlem with her husband and three children.

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