Meet Sarah Bain, Zen Caregiving Project’s new Chief of Staff, and learn about her journey to us.
Sarah comes to us from the Pacific Northwest though her roots and ties to California are deep and lasting. With a background in nonprofit management, partnership management, donor development, fundraising, and grants management, Sarah is excited to join Zen Caregiving Project and lend a helping hand in our development of long-lasting partnerships and create deeper and more meaningful relationships with our donors.
She has worked in the philanthropic and nonprofit field for more than 15 years. In addition, Sarah also runs the Spokane Chapter of the MISS Foundation which offers peer-to-peer support for families whose children have died. She provides newly bereaved parents with support and comfort as they process their devastating grief. Her personal experience with grief and loss from an early age and continuing into adulthood is what draws her toward the work at ZCP.
In her spare time, Sarah enjoys walking her two Australian Shepherds with her two cats who follow behind the dogs at a safe distance while they stroll together through the neighborhood. She’s also known to just step out the door of her home and keep walking in any direction until she gets tired. Often, she’ll end up seven to ten miles away from home and she’ll need to call her husband to pick her up.
As an avid reader, Sarah reads about one book a week, and while she’s willing to read just about anything, she has a fondness for literary fiction and memoirs. In 2021, her top favorites were Klara and the Sun by Kazuo Ishiguro, Hamnet by Maggie O’Farrell, Bewilderment by Richard Powers, and Notes on Grief, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. Feel free to email her with your favorite suggestions to read next.
In the late 1980s, Sarah studied Theravada Buddhism at Suan Mokkh monastery in Southern Thailand with Buddhadasa Bhikkhu. She spent a year in Asia with a backpack and a group of students who were some of the first Americans to travel again along the Silk Road by jeep, bus, and an occasional farmer’s truck from Northern Pakistan into Western China. Her experiences with meditation, grief, and the ongoing journey as a caregiver have made the transition to ZCP joyful and effortless.
Welcome, Sarah, to our family and friends.
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