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Sarah Culberson

Princess of Sierra Leone. Humanitarian. Educator. Author

Sarah was adopted at one by a loving, white West Virginia couple and raised with little knowledge of her ancestry. As a young adult, Sarah journeyed to Sierra Leone to meet her birth family, discovering she was a mahaloi, child of a Paramount Chief, with the status of a princess.

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Bio

Sarah Culberson was adopted one year after her first birthday by a loving, white West Virginia couple and raised in the United States with little knowledge of her ancestry.

In 2004 Sarah took the journey to Sierra Leone to meet her birth father and family and discovered she was considered a mahaloi, the child of a Paramount Chief, with the status of a princess. After going to Sierra Leone and seeing the aftermath of an 11 year civil war she co-founded Sierra Leone Rising, a non-profit to support the community. Sarah shared her story in a book she co-authored titled, “A Princess Found”. Her story has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, BBC radio, LA Times, Singapore News and many other media outlets. Her passion for education does not stop with Sierra Leone; as Director of Outreach at the Oakwood School in Los Angeles, Sarah works daily with middle and high school students.

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Keynotes

Featured Keynote

Better Together: How To Build a Culture of Belonging
The landscape of leadership and organizations have changed. Whether in a corporate or volunteer setting, team members want a sense of community and belonging. However, building this kind of culture doesn't happen on its own, rather it’s based on action. Princess Sarah’s keynote is for groups who are serious about recognizing differences and taking on people challenges to solve and innovate.

Princess Sarah uses her personal experience as an adopted child growing up in a bi-racial family, as well as understanding a whole new culture when she discovered that she was a real-life princess in Sierra Leone. In addition to this inspiring journey, she draws from her business side as an entrepreneur (in entertainment and gaming).

In this keynote, filled with stories and value, Princess Sarah covers three areas:
- Embrace your assumptions to elevate yourself and those around you.
- Be willing to get uncomfortable and have the challenging conversations
- Navigate with compassion and use humanity to listen and learn to drive decisions
Building a culture of belonging is more than top-down leadership and operating on the mindset that it’s someone else's responsibility. Princess Sarah focuses on empowering YOU, the individual, to take action and build a tribe that is meaningful, passionate, and sustainable. Princess Sarah customizes her talks for each group based on their needs (in leadership, teams, culture, and D&I).

Diversity and Inclusion Program: Take Action and Transform
Diversity and Inclusion Program: Take Action and Transform
Princess Sarah’s program is more than an inspiring story of discovering her roots of becoming a princess. Sarah works with organizations to customize a message that is right for them.

Sarah has over 10 years+ of working with corporate and education groups on developing successful D&I programs as well as how to have conversations.

With Sarah’s program, groups will learn:

How to listen to each other, even when you don’t agree

How to create empathy

Understand Intersectionality more

Princess Sarah uses her personal experience as an adopted child growing up in a bi-racial family, as well as understanding a whole new culture when she discovered that she was a real-life princess. Along with real personal examples, Sarah provides actionable takeaways based on the needs of the organization.
Princess Found: You Are More Than Your Title
Princess Found: You Are More Than Your Title
Raised in West Virginia by her adopted parents, Sarah Culberson had little knowledge of her ancestry. She grew up in a loving, white household, but she had questions about her identity and biracial roots that led her to hire a private investigator. When she began her unforgettable journey to find her family, she never imagined what she would discover or how it would change her life: she was related to African royalty. Her biological grandfather is the Paramount Chief of a village in Sierra Leone, West Africa and Sarah is considered a Mahaloi, with the status of a princess.

Princess Sarah takes an audience on her journey from princess to humanitarian. She shares that everyone has to earn their title, whether it’s that of being a mother, a company leader, or new team hires. The title alone does not give a person success. Sarah’s talk focuses on core values that attendees can use personally and professionally:

Build a community and culture

Embrace diversity and inclusion

Overcome your fears to live your dreams

From a dancer to princess, to humanitarian (where she co-founded a non profit, Sierra Leone Rising, to support rebuilding education, public health, and female empowerment), to being an educator (as director of Outreach at the Oakwood School in LA), Princess Sarah uses warmth and humor in her keynote to provide a unique experience filled with stories, images, art, and above all, kindness.

The result of her keynote is a challenge, to all attendees, to make their own discovery of self identity and transformation.