Sandra Schumann serves as the Salata Institute’s first Director of Development.
In this critical role to the growth of the Institute and Harvard University’s climate initiative, she works in close coordination with colleagues in Harvard University Alumni Affairs and Development, to manage a portfolio of major gift prospects, corporations, and foundations, and to manage the Salata Institute Advisory Board.
Sandra comes to the Salata Institute from The Nature Conservancy, where she served as Director of Strategic Philanthropy, Global Climate. In that position, she managed a portfolio of principal and ultra-high net worth donors and strategic partnerships that supported The Nature Conservancy’s climate priorities across the globe. Sandra brings more than 20 years of experience in non-profit fundraising and donor communications to her role. Prior to joining the Conservancy, she built and led a Principal Gift Team at the University of Washington’s College of the Environment, UW EarthLab and the UW Institute of Learning and Brain Sciences. Preceding her fundraising her career in higher education, Sandra was part of the individual giving team at Seattle Opera.
Sandra holds a master’s degree in comparative politics and social sciences and a bachelor’s degree in social and cultural studies from the from the European University Viadrina in Frankfurt (Oder), Germany. She has worked and studied in several European and Latin American countries before moving to the United States.
A native German, Sandra currently lives in Seattle, WA with her husband, two teenagers and a dog. In her free time, she volunteers with St. Mary’s Foodbank and spends as much time as possible in the outdoors of the Pacific Northwest hiking, running, and skiing.
The Salata Institute
The Salata Institute supports interdisciplinary research that leads to real-world action, including high-risk/high-reward projects by researchers already working in the climate area and new endeavors that make it easier for Harvard scholars, who have not worked on climate problems, to do so. Faculty interested in the Climate Research Clusters program should note an upcoming deadline for concepts on April 1, 2024.