Sarah Augustine
Sarah Augustine is the Executive Director of the Coalition to Dismantle the Doctrine of Discovery, a national coalition with global reach. From 2007-2022 she directed a Dispute Resolution Center in Central Washington. She has served on the faculty at Heritage University, Central Washington University and Yakima Valley College, and has served as Adjunct faculty at Goshen College.
Sarah received a BA in Sociology and Psychology (1996) and an MA in Whole Systems Design with an emphasis in group conflict transformation (2006). She has represented the interests of Indigenous community partners to their own governments, the Inter-American development bank, the United Nations, the Organization of American States Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, The World Council of Churches, the World Health Organization, and a host of other international actors including corporate interests. In 1012 she co-drafted the World Council of Churches (WCC) Statement on the Doctrine of Discovery and its Enduring Impact on Indigenous Peoples. She co-wrote the WCC 2013 Assembly Minute on Indigenous Peoples, and worked with an international coalition of Indigenous faith leaders to create the WCC’s Indigenous Peoples Program. She employs shuttle diplomacy and community-based participatory action to de-escalate conflict and establish common ground between communities and external interests. In addition to her work with Suriname Indigenous Health Fund, Sarah has worked as an organizational consultant in strategic planning, facilitation, and mediation. Sarah, a senior mediator, has been a mediating for twenty years.
Sarah served as the Chair of the Washington State Redistricting Commission in 2021-22, shepherding the largest group outreach effort in Washington history and establishing a Tribal Consultation Policy. She was appointed by the Washington State Supreme Court to the Office of Civil Legal Aid Oversight Committee in 2018, where she served for five years, in the role of chair from 2021-2023. At the invitation of the Supreme Court, she convened a working group to review the Appellate rules for indigent residents in 2022.
Sarah has written for Sojourners, Anabaptist Witness, Geez Magazine, The Mennonite, Response Magazine, Leader Magazine, and is a regular columnist for Anabaptist World. With coalition co-founder Sheri Hostettler, she co-hosts the Dismantling the Doctrine of Discovery Podcast. Sarah is the Author of The Land is Not Empty (Herald Press, 2021).
Sarah Lives with her husband, Dan Peplow, and their son in Central Washington.