Sarah Jakle is the founder and executive director of DemocraShe, a national nonpartisan nonprofit that gives historically underserved high school girls free online training in resiliency skills, public policy leadership, and civic engagement, paired with a stipend so cost is never a barrier to participating.
Sarah built the program after a diagnosis of psoriatic arthritis derailed her career as a social worker studying trauma and resilience through a military-focused master's in social work. She turned that research into practical tools (what DemocraShe calls "amygdala skills") for regulating fear and self-doubt, first for herself, then as national outreach director for a voter registration organization and Get Out the Vote director for California NOW, and now for the thousands of girls who go through DemocraShe's programs.
She founded DemocraShe in January 2021 after learning that high school is the last point where boys and girls believe they can run for office equally. The organization is now 92 percent girls of color and 70 percent first generation Americans, and Sarah's five year goal is to grow the program to serve 115,000 girls by 2030.
Timestamps:
[00:00] Cold open: what did a rheumatologist tell Sarah she'd never do again?
[00:56] Introduction
[01:09] What is the mission of DemocraShe?
[01:31] Why did Sarah found DemocraShe, and what's the origin story?
[05:31] What are the early signs a woman is counting herself out?
[07:17] Is there an evolutionary reason women's brains respond to risk differently than men's?
[12:07] What can a woman do right now to work through that response?
[15:55] How does DemocraShe turn these practices into an actual program?
[17:35] What changes do girls see in themselves before and after the program?
[22:12] What are DemocraShe's plans for the next five to ten years?
[29:25] How can someone get engaged with DemocraShe?
[30:58] What does Sarah want to leave listeners with?
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