• ​Teaching and Learning Coordinator, Secondary Literacy specialist
• 14 years in education: Elm Creek Public Schools, Kearney High School, ESU 10 ​
• 10 years as a high school English teacher
• NeWP participant in 2019

Sarah Essay is an educator driven to strengthen both student and teacher literacy skills. While working as a secondary English teacher for 10 years, Sarah taught grades 7-12 along with coaching speech and One Act. Since moving to her role at the Educational Service Unit in Kearney, she loves working with K-12 educators across the 44 districts that ESU 10 serves. Strengthening the love of literacy in cross-disciplinary educators is a particular passion as Sarah believes that all students deserve a teacher who sees them as capable of writing and reading at grade level. Fluency in writing allows a pathway to deeper civic engagement and personal development, and Sarah desires to help all educators become engaged writers and teachers of writing. One memorable feature about Sarah can be found in her aptly-named last name, which is indeed pronounced like the composition, spurring many eye-rolls from students and hearty “dad jokes” from past parent conversations.