Sarah E. Leone, BSW
Sarah E. Leone is a social work professional and grassroots advocate serving as a Senior Associate on the Grassroots Impact Team with RESULTS and RESULTS Educational Fund. With nearly a decade of experience in social services and advocacy, she works with volunteer advocates across the United States, equipping them with tools, training, and support to engage members of Congress on anti-poverty policies such as Medicaid and SNAP. Her work is centered on strengthening civic participation and ensuring marginalized voices are represented in national policy conversations.
Her career began in direct service roles, including victim advocacy in domestic violence shelters and support for survivors of human trafficking. She later transitioned into refugee and immigrant services during the COVID-19 pandemic, helping communities access healthcare and essential resources. These experiences shaped her commitment to addressing systemic inequities and strengthening access to basic needs through policy change and civic engagement.
In addition to her advocacy work, Sarah has spent years organizing and educating communities across Indiana on voter rights, civic engagement, and social justice issues. She is deeply committed to intersectional advocacy, particularly in areas impacting Black, Brown, Indigenous, disabled, and justice-impacted communities. Her work continues to focus on building collective power, advancing equity, and creating sustainable pathways for systemic change.
• Bachelor of Social Work (BSW)
• RESULTS Advocacy & Organizing Fellowship
• Ball State University — Bachelor of Social Work, College of Health and Social Work
• Influential Women 2026
• Dean’s Honor List — Ball State University
• Immersive Learning Project Participant — Financial Exploitation of the Elderly (Ball State University)
• RESULTS (Grassroots Advocacy Network)
• RESULTS Educational Fund
• Count US IN Inc.
• Influential Women Network
• Board Member, Count US IN Inc. (formerly)
• Diversity, Education & Inclusion Committee Member, American Red Cross (formerly)
• Community organizing for civic engagement and voter rights (Indiana-based initiatives)
• Advocacy participation supporting SNAP, Medicaid, and anti-poverty programs through RESULTS
• Congressional advocacy and grassroots mobilization efforts across U.S. communities
What do you attribute your success to?
When I think about my success, I honestly attribute it to my family. I come from a family of immigrants from my mom and my dad's side, and they both had very different stories of how they got to the United States, and how some of them even left and went back to their original home countries because they didn't like it. I think my stubbornness and my nonstop sheer will comes from them. If I feel very passionate about something, I definitely feel like I get that from them, and that's what motivates me. There's a lot going on in the United States right now that's a hot mess, to be honest with you, and a lot of it there's not an immediate fix, but I think the best thing we can be doing is just continuing to be in the pursuit of justice, while also utilizing our rights and using our voices. I definitely think I got that from my family and the people that helped raise me, too. I grew up very much in a village raised as a child situation, where I grew up with great aunts, great-uncles, great-grandmothers, great-grandfathers, and that really has helped shape me into the person that I am today.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice that I've ever received came from somebody that's also in the social work field, and they said that it's okay to put the work down, it will be there tomorrow. That has stuck with me for almost a decade now, just because they're right. I think sometimes, especially in the social work field, we get burnt out so quickly from lack of pay, lack of resources, lack of help for our clients, and so I think being able to just say, I need a break, I need to sort of refill. My mom grew up saying, like, you know, we have to refill our love cups, and sort of reconnect with what makes us tick and what motivates us. I think that's probably the best advice I've been given.
What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would definitely say it's okay to be nervous, it's okay to be scared, but don't get comfortable with that feeling. What you want to do is make sure that you ask yourself every day, what are you scared about? You start remembering, or you start thinking, you know what? I don't have anything to be scared about. You start owning your power, you start stepping into your own truth. I think for particularly women and non-males and people that don't necessarily fit into a binary, too, you living in your truth and living your life, that really is you leading the way for a lot of people, and so that's something to be proud of, and I think that's something we should be celebrating. It's okay to make mistakes, and it's also okay to call out the injustices or maybe the imbalances that you see in the workplace. I had a few experiences early in my career that I feel like really could have taken me away from the social work field, but I pushed through it, and I'm forever grateful that I did.
What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
I think a lot of social workers right now are facing lack of opportunities. When the president shut down a bunch of projects last year, he decided to take away loan opportunities for people pursuing degrees that come out to helping people, really - social workers, nurses, doctors, lawyers. Those are some barriers that a lot of us are experiencing that are considering or were considering going back to school. There's a lot of suppression happening of people speaking up and speaking out, especially if you have mixed legal status. A lot of people are being targeted, and so I've been on the lookout, trying to figure out how I can best support my community members outside of the social work community, people that do organizing. I think there's a lot of cynicism out there because so many bad things are happening in the United States, and I think that can sometimes be detrimental to your health if you're already struggling with something physically. A lot of my friends that are practicing direct service work have clients that are really struggling and don't know how they're gonna feed their families. I think there's a lot of work to be done, and some of these bureaucratic barriers are just not helping. A lot of the laws and different things across the country in regards to women and non-males, we're starting to become oppressed, and a lot of things are - it feels like we're turning back the clock to the 1950s. It's very difficult, I think, now more so than in a lot of times in the last 50 years to be a woman, to know that we have these rights and to have had them, and now to see them being taken away from us by people that we trusted. I think it does make everybody who is a woman or identifies as trans, non-binary, a lot of us are on edge, and I think it is something that we do need to be open about, because I think there is community when we come together and we talk about what we're struggling with. Also, members of Congress need to be answering their phones a lot better than what they've been doing lately. Their constituents are trying to get ahold of them. I've emailed an office up to 10 times before I got a response.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
I think some values that are most important to me are just the fight and the journey towards equity for all. I grew up coming from mixed ethnicities, and I grew up heavily and closely identifying with my Mexican American and Indigenous heritage. I think through there, I learned the value of community, and that children and everybody benefits from being raised by a village. From that, I think it has really shaped the way that I see and how I practice my work and how I engage with people, making sure that they have a connection to communities near them, and if they don't, helping them understand what that could be. Intersectionality is a value and also a framework that I heavily admire and use in my everyday life, because I think we cannot - there can't be liberation if we're all not free. I think it's extremely important for all of us to continue to see the human race and just as everyday human beings. Collectively, we have to see one another as being worthy of our love and attention. There can be multiple things going on at the same time, and it's very much okay for you to take a break, to step back, but it's also alright for you to challenge yourself and take that next step or take that leap that maybe you were afraid to do so before. Everything I've done is very much ingrained in social justice. One of the best things that I've included in my life as a value is understanding that it's okay if you don't know something, but the important thing is that you ask questions. You don't assume, you don't judge, and when you move through the world that way, you open yourself up to so much more than you previously had access to.