Sarah Kyle (Former Staff) Vice President

Sarah Kyle serves as Vice President of Budget and External Relations at First Focus.  Prior to joining First Focus, Sarah served as National Manager of Government Relations at JDRF (Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation) where she worked collaboratively with the Advocacy team on efforts to advance the artificial pancreas technology at the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, renew the Special Diabetes Program dedicated to type 1 diabetes research, and secured report language to advance diabetes research and therapies in the appropriations process.

Before joining JDRF, Sarah served as Legislative Assistant to Senator Evan Bayh of Indiana on health care, social policy and transportation issues. In that position, Sarah introduced legislation enacted into law to stem the nursing shortage (enacted in the Affordable Care Act) and to improve the quality, performance, and delivery of pediatric care (enacted as part of the Children’s Health Insurance Program Reauthorization Act of 2009). She also introduced the National Alzheimer’s Project Act (NAPA) to coordinate federal activity to combat Alzheimer’s disease, the first Alzheimer’s specific legislation to be enacted into law in 18 years.  Prior to serving on Senator Bayh’s staff, Sarah worked at Van Scoyoc Associates as Director of Government Relations after serving in the office of her hometown congressman, U.S. Representative Tim Roemer of Indiana.

At First Focus, Sarah’s work centers on how the federal budget and appropriations process impacts children and families, and plays a lead role of the Children’s Budget Coalition. She is also engaged in external relations to help ensure that proposals by First Focus and its partners are strongly considered by Congress.

Sarah holds a Master of Arts degree in Government from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, and a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science and Economics from Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana.  She and her husband live on Capitol Hill with their three sons.