Sara Wasserteil is the senior director of Income & Assets at The Chicago Community Trust.
Prior to joining the Trust in 2026, Sara was a consultant and director at the Corporate Coalition of Chicago, where she led the Small Dollar Solutions initiative to build partnerships between employers and financial institutions to provide employees with affordable emergency loans while helping them build savings and credit.
Previously, Sara served as Managing Director at Cara Collective, where she built the organization’s national expansion and inclusive employment advisory practice. She also spent 10+ years leading programs across Sub-Saharan Africa and advising organizations such as the City of Chicago, Google.org, the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, and TD Bank on strategies to build an economy where everyone can thrive.
Sara serves as a senior fellow at the Woodstock Institute, a board member of The Gray Matter Experience, and an advisory council member for both the GreenLight Fund Chicago and Chicago State University Center for Workforce Equity. She holds a bachelor’s from Boston University and an master’s in public policy from the University of Chicago.
