Sara Porterfield Email & Phone Number

Boulder, Colorado

Tributaries Consulting provides communication and outreach through research, writing, education, and public outreach for the Western water community and other industries. As founder and principal, I manage multiple projects for a diverse roster of clients. Throughout the process, I communicate with clients to define project scope and execute project in alignment with their goals and employ creative perspectives and methods to convey my clients’ message in the final product.

Moab, Utah

Outward Bound's mission is "to change lives through challenge and discovery," and as a course director and instructor I work with an instructional team of four to seven staff to deliver an impactful, outdoor experience to my students in accordance with Outward Bound Core Values and educational goals. I teach wilderness skills to students, including whitewater rafting and climbing, as well as lessons including the natural history of the Colorado Plateau, group dynamics, and western water and regional environmental issues. As a senior staff member entering my thirteenth season with Outward Bound, I also mentor junior staff through role modeling best practices, building a safe learning environment, and offering reflections on my own experience

As an instructor at multiple universities, I developed and implemented 16-week U.S. and Western water history courses for 15 to 45 students. Throughout the semesters, I facilitated large- and small-group discussions, set and maintained expectations and provided performance evaluations of students. Through teaching and mentoring, I built rapport with members of highly diverse student populations and worked with students to succeed in the classroom and beyond.

Boulder, Colorado

As an academic research, I designed and managed a multi-year project on the Colorado River’s international influence with a focus on global conservation efforts. Through the process, I identified grant opportunities and secured funding for research, domestic and international travel, and data analysis and writing. I also developed and implemented a research plan that included travel to research sites in 4 states, stakeholder interviews, qualitative data analysis, and production of a manuscript.

Boulder, Colorado

Erstwhile is a collaborative space in which American intellectual, cultural, labor, Native American, and environmental historians share ideas that I co-founded in 2014 with five graduate student colleagues. Erstwhile seeks to bring the past into conversation with the present in order to promote thoughtful conversation about the past, the present, and the historical profession. Many of our weekly posts relate to current events and their historical precedents. I have published pieces on non-academic and alt-academic careers, locating a sense of place, the California drought, and the 2015 Gold King Mine spill in southwestern Colorado.

Durango, Colorado

As the inaugural recipient of the Center of Southwest Studies' Doctoral Fellow position, I worked in three sectors at Fort Lewis College: research, archives, and the classroom. Producing original research for my own dissertation was a central component of the position, as was teaching the US History survey course from 1877 to the present day. I also worked in the archives to arrange and describe a section of the Western Colorado Power Company collection held by the Center.

At The Wilderness Society, I engaged the public through online newsletters, blog posts, and conservation news pieces on the national level and for the North Cascades Initiative website about current conservation issues in the Pacific Northwest. I worked with the communications team to deliver effective and timely news and information about The Wilderness Society’s North Cascades Initiative and other Pacific Northwest conservation campaigns.

At Night & Day Studios, I researched and wrote background content for interactive museum exhibits in a small, start-up company. I collaborated with developers of educational multimedia to determine exhibit content and appeal to a diverse audience. I also designed panel placement and layout and wrote panel content throughout Tucson, Arizona’s 17-acre historic park. Our clients included Longwood Gardens and Tucson Origins Heritage Park.

Phd, History

Ba, History

Activities and Societies: College OutdoorsHonors Thesis, "Mount Rainier National Park: An Illustration of the 19th Century American.