Sarah has experience in research and in education. Sarah started her career in Edinburgh where she completed a BSc (Hons) in genetics and a PhD from the Centre for HIV Research. Following two years of post-doctoral research, Sarah qualified as a secondary school science teacher and spent six years teaching in high schools in Leeds and Wakefield. Sarah moved back into higher education in 2005, working as a lecturer in the Faculty of Health Studies, University of Bradford. Subsequently, Sarah moved to the University of Lincoln, School of Health and Social Care in 2016 and joined the Department of Health Sciences at York in 2017 as a lecturer in biological sciences.