Sara Poole brings over 20 + years of marketing and business development experience to her current role as Director of Marketing, Communications, and Public Relations at the Center for Innovative Technology (CIT) – (now VIPC). 

Prior to her current role, she enjoyed a career working on institutional-level investments for a high-net-worth individual in a Chief of Staff role that emphasized leadership coaching, project management, marketing, and business development with responsibilities including strategic planning, portfolio operations, and performance of a $150 million+ private investment fund. 

Before that, Poole was the National Sales & Marketing Director of the Web Hosting Business Unit of UUNET, a division within UUNET that she helped co-found and the first in the industry to provide web hosting customers the ability to host websites at multiple locations around the world. (Today, UUNET is an internal brand of Verizon Business.)

Previously, Poole was an Executive Director at Osborn Capital LLC, where she was responsible for deal sourcing new technology start-ups, brand-building, research, and strategic/tactical support to drive the development and success of new investments. 

An only child, Poole cared for her dad through Cholangiocarcinoma, her mom through Alzheimer’s, and Hospice for both. She accomplished this while maintaining a career and raising two young children. As a result, caregiving is both a passion and expertise.

In 2016, Poole and her family founded ‘Kids Are Caregivers Too’, a start-up advocacy project intended to bring a little bit of happiness to the lives of over 3.5M caregiving youth in the United States, specifically kids that are living with and helping someone with Alzheimer’s or other conditions. She is also the Co-Chair of the American Association of Caregiving Youth (AACY) National Advisory Council, where she volunteers alongside a diverse group of professionals from several different industries on national outreach to educate on caregiving youth issues in the United States.

Sara received a BA in Communications & Business from Eastern Illinois University.