Bio
Sara Soderstrom joined the University of Michigan faculty in 2012. Sara completed her PhD at the Kellogg School of Management, Northwestern University and a postdoctoral fellowship at the Erb Institute at the University of Michigan. Prior to her graduate work at Kellogg, Sara worked as a consultant at McKinsey & Company serving retail and financial services organizations and led a business transformation team in post-merger activities at The Auto Club Group, a AAA umbrella organization. She holds MSE degrees in Chemical and Environmental Engineering and a BSE degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Michigan. Sara has worked with Victoria Medvec and Medvec & Associates to facilitate negotiation workshops, guide professionals on negotiations, and teach negotiation courses since 2006.
Sara studies how individuals within organizations negotiate, mobilize others, develop coalitions, and access key decision makers when they are trying to implement sustainability initiatives. Further, she studies individual and organizational responses to the ambiguity and uncertainty that surrounds sustainability, such as making sense of emergent issues, prioritizing strategic initiatives, and agenda setting. Sara teaches multiple courses at the University of Michigan that focus on the intersection of organizations and sustainability. She has received numerous teaching awards, including the 2016 Individual Award for Outstanding Contributions to Undergraduate Education.