Sarah Rose Smithson, M.A.
Sarah Rose Smithson, M.A., is a Programs and Projects Manager, educator, and community advocate based in the Albuquerque–Santa Fe metropolitan area. She currently works at the Transgender Resource Center of New Mexico, where she supports the Co-Executive Directors in delivering direct support services, including harm reduction and mutual aid programs for transgender, nonbinary, and unhoused community members. Her work focuses on strengthening access to essential resources, coordinating services, and helping ensure that community needs are met through responsive, mission-driven operations.
She holds a Master of Arts in International Relations from Queen Mary University of London and a Bachelor’s degree in International Studies from the University of New Mexico. Her academic work focused on constructivist applications of international relations theory in Latin America and the Caribbean, which strengthened her analytical thinking and deepened her interest in cross-cultural systems and global engagement. In addition to her academic background, she has built experience across nonprofit work, education, and advocacy, including volunteering with the Southwest Women’s Law Center, Equality New Mexico, and Jemez Valley Animal Amigos. She is also a published author through Swimming With Elephants Publications and continues to integrate writing, design, and storytelling into her professional and community work.
Sarah Rose’s career path has spanned healthcare, hospitality, and IT, experiences that ultimately reinforced her decision to build a long-term career in the nonprofit sector. She is most passionate about project management, program management, and administrative systems work—especially roles that involve improving efficiency, strengthening operations, and supporting teams behind the scenes. At Explora Science Center and Children’s Museum, she was recognized with a departmental management award two years in a row for her leadership, communication, and responsiveness. During her tenure, she successfully grew and refined a career pathways internship program over three years, streamlining it from approximately 42 interns to 20 to create a more focused and effective workforce development experience. Across her roles, she is known for coordinating logistics, routing information efficiently, managing reporting and grant data, and ensuring that organizational systems run smoothly in service of community impact.
• Nonprofit Executive Leadership Certificate
• Practical Project Management Certificate
• CPR First Aid and AED Instructor (Red Cross)
• Embracing Equity Anti-Racism Learning Series: New Mexico
• Youth Mental Health First Aid
• Queen Mary University of London - MA, International Relations and Affairs
• University of New Mexico - BA, International Studies, Culture and Art in Europe
• Award for Management of Department at Explora (two consecutive years)
• Hamas Valley Animal Amigos
• Jemez Valley Animal Amigos (rural drive-in shot clinics and mobile spay/neuter clinics)
• Equality New Mexico Roundtable
• New Mexico Voters First
• Animal Fostering
• Southwest Women's Law Center
• JEMEZ VALLEY ANIMAL AMIGOS
What do you attribute your success to?
What inspired me to get into my field was when I was doing my master's degree - I was contemplating my prospects and thinking that changing the world on the international scale is something that's very difficult to do. It's a very large prospect to consider and take on. I was looking at all the jobs that were available, and I was thinking none of these really felt like a great fit. They were kind of too out there, too esoteric. I really thought about it hard and realized that being able to engage directly with my community and provide direct support services is the best way to engage in that work. How do you change the world without changing your community first? How do you change your community without first changing or helping an individual? That kind of systemic change needs to start really at the grassroots in order to be effective, I believe. So I'm really just trying to create the change that I want to see here at the local community level. My career exploration across healthcare, hospitality, and IT really made me very secure and confident in my choice of working in the nonprofit field, because I found that what I love doing most is project management, program management, and administrative support - anything that allows me to work with systems and make them better and more efficient. What's really important for me is that I'm working with the community and working towards a mission that I believe in and that aligns with my values.
What’s the best career advice you’ve ever received?
The best career advice that I ever received is to have fun. If you're not having fun in your job, I think you're not in the right job, because a good sense of fun and being able to have fun in your work makes it not feel like work. And it's not as draining as some other jobs can be, especially when you're in the human services field. That can look like a lot of different ways, you know, how to implement that, but I really prioritize having good, light relationships with my team and kind of bringing levity wherever I can. Like, I have a whole basket of fidget toys that I always bring to every meeting, just to kind of introduce play and allow people to have a little bit of fun during the course of the day.
What values are most important to you in your work and personal life?
What's really important to me is that I'm working with the community and working towards a mission that I believe in and that aligns with my values. I'm a great animal lover - I did a lot of fostering during quarantine, a lot of bottle babies specifically, and I currently foster a leopard gecko for a participant who lives in my office. I've volunteered with Jemez Valley Animal Amigos doing rural drive-in shot clinics and mobile spay and neuter clinics over the years, and I find that very fulfilling. I also have a lot of interest in oddities, like taxidermy more in the museum sense - pinned insects and things like that. Anytime I'm traveling, I'm always going to museums wherever I'm at. I'm also a voracious reader - I can usually clear a 300-page book in a day if I'm trying hard. I would say that I'm just kind of a passionate LGBTQ advocate. I've sat on the roundtable for Equality New Mexico previously and really just dedicate a lot of time to advocacy work in that realm. I'm always very supportive of any work that Equality New Mexico does, and I'm currently adjacently involved with New Mexico Voters First.