I'm Sara Erickson, an operator and Chief of Staff at Amira Learning, where I've spent six years building the systems and execution infrastructure that turn strategy into real results. Here's what has my attention right now.
Building execution infrastructure at Amira
My job is to make strategy real, and lately a lot of that work is the unglamorous kind. I care about decision velocity over motion, clarity of ownership over org charts, and outcomes over activity. That means pushing for fewer priorities with a higher bar on each one, and the systems that make sure the right calls get made quickly with the right people accountable. One piece I care about more than it might sound: every week I run our company-wide all-hands. In a virtual-first company those moments are the culture, so I treat the format, the timing, and the tone as something to design deliberately rather than leave to chance.
What actually works in education technology
I've spent my whole career in education, and lately I've been writing about the conversation around technology in schools. Banning phones is a fair debate to have. But some states are going further and pulling back on nearly all classroom technology in the early grades, and that's a different decision entirely. A YouTube video and a structured reading intervention are not the same thing, and treating them as interchangeable risks taking away tools that genuinely improve reading outcomes. The question I keep coming back to isn't tech or no tech. It's what works, and for whom.
Running my own life with personal OKRs
In fall 2024, right before becoming a mother on my own, I noticed something odd. At work I ran organizations on clear priorities, measurable outcomes, and quarterly planning. At home, my life mostly ran on good intentions. So I asked what would happen if I ran my life the way I run a company, and I started using personal OKRs, organized across three planning horizons. The discipline that works for an organization turns out to work just as well for one person trying to be deliberate about health, family, and the things that actually matter.
Want to talk through any of this? You can connect with me on LinkedIn.
Last updated June 2026.