Sarah Crockett is the Public Policy Director at Texas CASA. Crockett grew up in Idaho and has a bachelor’s degree in political science and philosophy from Northwest Nazarene University and a master’s degree in social work from the University of Michigan in Social Policy and Program Evaluation. Crockett served as Associate Director of the Texas Association for Infant Mental Health before joining Texas CASA in late 2014. She has significant experience advocating for children, both legislatively and in her role as a CASA volunteer for CASA of Travis County. She served as the Chair of the Prevention Committee for the Child Protection Roundtable from 2014-2016, and has been serving as the Vice Chair of the Child Protection Round Table since 2021. In addition to her career at Texas CASA, Crockett recently began working as an adjunct professor in the School of Social Work at St. Edwards University in Austin where she has been teaching about the history of social welfare in the United States. When she isn’t working hard to make the world a better place in a professional setting, Crockett enjoys spending time with her husband and being a mom to her two sons, Elliot and Oliver.
Tell us about yourself and what drew you to public policy.
I’ve always loved learning about systems and people, and the ways that people make decisions. As a political science and philosophy major, I really enjoyed learning about ways of thinking and the political system… but I was left with a lot of urgency around fixing all of the challenges that I spent four years learning about. So, I went to get my master’s in Social Policy and Program Evaluation at the University of Michigan.
How long have you worked for Texas CASA, and how did you get involved with the CASA cause?
I’ve been with Texas CASA since 2014, 10 years this November! I wanted to work for Texas CASA because I became familiar with the organization in my previous work advocating for infants and toddlers, and I had been a CASA volunteer since I first moved to Texas in 2010. I believed in the CASA mission because I knew firsthand the impact CASA volunteers make in the lives of kids, and I wanted to work for CASA at the statewide level.
I wanted to take my advocacy from the courtroom to the Capitol!
Tell us about your work as a CASA volunteer.
I’ve been a CASA volunteer since 2010 when I first moved to Texas. It’s one of the hardest and most rewarding things that I’ve ever done. It’s been really impactful to see firsthand the challenges of the foster care system and how little control CASA volunteers have at times on being able to support the children they advocate for – which highlights for me what I have been able to do…be a really important person in [my CASA child’s] life.
I’m now on my 3rd case as a CASA volunteer and each one has been very different from the others, except for the fact that each one of my CASA children have wanted to remain connected to their families in some way. This reality came as a surprise to me at first and is one of the most significant reasons that I believe in the importance of the Collaborative Family Engagement model. This reality has also driven me to champion Texas CASA’s messaging book and our efforts to put families at the center of our work.
How does your CASA volunteer advocacy affect your public policy work?
I think it keeps everything that I do in my job extremely relevant because I feel very connected to the challenges kids in foster care face. And I feel a real sense of urgency to keep fighting at a systemic level to make things better.
It’s really hard to not remember children when I’m advocating for policy because there’s a particular child in my life that I think about a lot when I consider all these policies.
What’s your favorite thing about your job?
It kind of varies on the day – but I think one of the things I like the best about my job is the huge number of stakeholders, volunteers, staff and other child advocates I get to work with from across the state. It’s really empowering to feel connected to so many people who have the same goals and the same passion for making things better for children experiencing foster care. It’s hard to lose motivation when you have so many people behind you, who support you and all want the same thing.
As a CASA volunteer myself, I feel so honored and privileged to be able to represent all of the other volunteers from around the state when I’m at the Capitol. Our volunteers have really hard jobs, and I know that. I feel good knowing I’m working to not only make things better for the children, but also for the volunteers who are supporting them!