Featured Speaker: Sarah Owen | Collaboratory Explanation Session | Wed. Sept 1st at 7:30am

Learn more about Collaboratory’s big possibility of solving all the region’s social problems in 18 years and how you can be involved.

• Sarah Owen, president & CEO of the Southwest Florida Community Foundation, leads a passionate and diverse team dedicated to cultivating regional change for the common good.
• Her journey into the non-profit sector followed a career in investor relations, public relations and corporate communications. Her corporate experience was in the automotive and engineering industries and Sarah was sought out by innovators and entrepreneurs developing emerging technologies. Sarah brings this focus on innovation to her work at the Community Foundation. She is guiding the Foundation in reimagining its role in the region.
• In 2017, Sarah oversaw the execution of a public private partnership with the City of Fort Myers to create Collaboratory, a $10.5 million project funded with New Market Tax Credits.
• The LEED Gold Collaboratory comprises a renovated 1920s Atlantic Coast Line Railway depot and a technologically advanced 14,000 square foot addition designed to support the vital work of the region’s nonprofit organizations, businesses, residents and visitors.
• Through her leadership, the Foundation has become laser-focused on regional issues affecting the quality of life in Southwest Florida, gathered, listened to and learned from thousands of community residents and stakeholders around these issues, and has grown the Foundation’s assets to become one of the largest funding organizations in the region.
• With a commitment to measure the sustainable impact of the Foundation’s efforts, she led the effort to align the organization’s cause areas with the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals.
• A graduate of Florida Southern College and the University of South Florida, Sarah holds a bachelor’s and master’s degree in education as well as certifications in environmental engineering from University of Florida’s TREEO Center.
• She is married to David Owen and they have successfully launched their two adult kids out of the house and have become Boilermakers fans while their youngest attends Purdue University.