Speaking
“Knowledgeable, Passionate and Just Fun! That sums up Sara’s presentation to the AASA’s Inaugural Social and Emotional Learning Cohort. In a room of school superintendents and district administrators she had everyone up and moving, connecting with one another and themselves. It was a journey that created an opportunity for the cohort to experience how creative expression and movement allows for better understanding of ourselves and the students we serve.”
Bernadine Futrell, Ph.D.
Director, Leadership Network
AASA,The School Superintendents Association
Ideas That Move People
Bring Sara Potler LaHayne to your next stage, conference, or conversation.
Sara is an entrepreneur, founder, behavioral and mental health leader, and experiential facilitator who believes the most powerful ideas aren’t just heard. They’re felt, practiced, and experienced.
Drawing on nearly two decades of building healthier school communities, Sara brings together personal storytelling, practical insight, movement, play, reflection, and embodied experiences that invite audiences to become active participants rather than passive listeners.
Whether she’s exploring the future of behavioral and mental health, leading through change, turning ideas into movements, or embracing the power of pause, Sara creates interactive experiences that help people connect more deeply with the ideas, with one another, and with themselves. Audiences leave with insights and experiences they can carry into their lives and work.
Signature Speaking Topics
THE POWER OF PAUSE
In a culture that rewards constant motion, what becomes possible when we create space to stop?
Sara challenges audiences to rethink the relationship between productivity and pause. Through personal stories, individual and group experiences, reflection, and practical strategies, she explores how intentional pauses can create space for clarity, connection, creativity, resilience, and better leadership.
Ideal for: corporate teams, leadership retreats, educator conferences, wellness events, and executive audiences.
BUILDING THE FUTURE OF BEHAVIORAL & MENTAL HEALTH
The way we support student mental health is changing.
Sara explores what it takes to move from fragmented programs and reactive responses toward connected, proactive systems of support. Drawing from her experience founding Move This World and now leading Behavioral and Mental Health at Riverside Insights, she shares a vision for connecting insight, instruction, intervention, and progress monitoring across the student journey.
Ideal for: education leaders, superintendents, mental health professionals, policymakers, school boards, and education conferences.
FROM IDEA TO IMPACT
How do you turn an idea you believe in into something that creates meaningful change?
Sara shares the candid story of building Move This World from an idea sparked during a Fulbright Scholarship in Colombia to a nationally recognized organization and eventual acquisition by Riverside Insights.
Along the way, she explores entrepreneurship, resilience, purpose, leadership, growth, failure, and what it really takes to build something that matters.
Ideal for: entrepreneurs, founders, emerging leaders, business schools, women’s leadership events, and corporate audiences.
CREATING COMMUNITIES WHERE PEOPLE THRIVE
Culture isn’t created by a mission statement. It’s built through thousands of everyday interactions.
Drawing on nearly two decades of helping schools and organizations build healthier communities, Sara explores how we create environments where people feel connected, supported, and equipped to navigate challenges.
Through a dynamic blend of storytelling, movement, reflection, and play, Sara brings these ideas to life through individual and group experiences. Participants might engage in guided reflection, interactive exercises with a partner, or collaborative activities that invite them to practice connection, communication, and empathy in real time. Rather than simply hearing about what makes communities thrive, audiences experience the power of these practices firsthand.
Participants leave with a deeper understanding of the role we all play in shaping culture, along with practical experiences and strategies they can bring back to their schools, organizations, and communities.
Ideal for: School and district leaders, educators, organizational leaders, HR and people and culture professionals, community organizations, and teams seeking to strengthen connection, belonging, wellbeing, and organizational culture.
A Speaker Who Connects
Sara has engaged audiences around the world, from educators and executives to entrepreneurs, policymakers, and changemakers.
Whether facilitating an intimate leadership retreat or taking the stage at a global conference, Sara creates experiences that invite people to participate, move, reflect, play, and connect. She brings energy, vulnerability, humor, and a deep understanding of how embodied experiences can turn ideas into something people truly feel and remember.
Audiences don’t simply listen. They engage with the ideas, experience them alongside one another, and leave with meaningful insights and practices they can carry into their lives, leadership, and work.
Bring Sara to Your Audience
Looking for a keynote speaker, panelist, moderator, workshop leader, or podcast guest?
PAST TALKS & EXPERIENCES
Park City School District Convocation
Keynote address for the Park City School District’s new school year convocation in Utah, intended to kick off the year with intention and collective vision, reinforce the impact educators have on students’ mental health, and how important their wellness is in order to create a strong school community.
LinkedIn Global Manager Summit
Interactive session to equip leaders with tools to strengthen their personal emotional resilience and the emotional resilience of their teams, build a problem solving culture, and implement and sustain an environment for healthy conflict resolution, inspiration and social emotional wellness.
Global Engagement Summit
Keynote Speaker for the Global Engagement Summit, hosted by Northwestern University.
AASA: The School Superintendent's Association
Interactive session with Superintendents from across the country, focused on leveraging creative expression to explore staff and student wellbeing.
ASU GSV Summit
Presentation with the most innovative leaders across the education industry at ASU GSV 2019.
World Economic Forum
Panel session focused on the need for social emotional learning and creativity to build emotional intelligence, ultimately leading to more empathy.
Beyond Sport Summit
Interactive, movement-based workshop in South Africa at the Beyond Sport Summit and Awards.
Podcasts
CEO and founder of Move This World, Sara LaHayne chats with CJ Arlotta of the Crisis Averted Podcast about why SEL is more important than ever.
CEO and founder of Move This World, Sara LaHayne, chats with PCDN about building a career integrating the arts and technology for social change.
CEO and founder of Move This World, Sara LaHayne, chats with the Teacher Better Talk team about creating moments of connection, giving kids opportunities to express themselves, and authentically owning our mistakes so we can learn from them.
In this podcast, Sara and host Mathew Portell discuss the relationship between social emotional learning and trauma informed practices.
In this podcast, Sara and host Gerard Dawson discuss the importance of social emotional learning in times of crisis and why teachers need to apply SEL skills and strategies in their own lives.
Throughout the episode, Sara and host Ryan Tibbens discuss what SEL is, how it works, what students/parents/teachers do in the Move This World program, and how we can make schools better by treating students as complete, dynamic human beings.
In this podcast, Dr. Maher and Sara LaHayne, Move This World’s Founder & CEO, join Dr. Joseph Wise, CEO of the Education Research & Development Institute to discuss the need for social emotional learning for both students and teachers as an increasing number of individuals continue to experience trauma.
Interested in having Sara at your next event?
For press inquiries or to book Sara for speaking engagements, workshops, professional development or events please reach out to partnerships@movethisworld.com.