Sara Vanatta

Director

Sara is currently Early Years Lead with the Education Endowment Foundation, an independent charity dedicated to breaking the link between family income and educational achievement. She joined the Children in Scotland Board in 2024.

Recently, Sara has been Senior Early Years Adviser for Save the Children UK, providing expertise to inform early years projects and programmes across the four nations.

Before relocating to Scotland in 2020, Sara spent nearly a decade supporting family engagement and health activity for Acelero Learning, a large Head Start provider in the United States. Head Start provides comprehensive early childhood education services and promotes school readiness for children under five from low-income families in the US.

She is also an Associate for Cattanach, a grant maker for the early years in Scotland.

Sara holds a Masters in Social Work from the University of Georgia. She is based in Glasgow with her partner and four young children. When she has a rare moment alone, Sara enjoys running, yoga and drinking a hot cup of tea uninterrupted.