Because Omaha can do better!
Omaha deserves thoughtful leadership with a clear vision for the future. Sara is focused on finding solutions and working together to build a brighter future for our community.
Sara has the experience and creativity to help Omaha reach toward its full potential.
Focus on Solutions
Sara will emphasize communication and use data to reach our long-term goals. We need to listen to each other, identify our goals, and then look to data to make the choices that will help us reach those goals. Partisan politics have no place in city government, and we need leaders who put the people and future of Omaha first. Sara also will work to keep constituents informed about what the City Council is doing.
City Services and Fiscal Responsibility
A community reflects what we all put into it. Our city government can and should invest in important public resources such as safe and sustainable transportation, parks, and libraries, so our city can continue to grow and thrive. Sara also will be a careful steward of public funds, making sure they are used efficiently.
Public Health and Safety
Public health policies should be based on science, not partisan politics. The delay in responding to the pandemic—at the federal, state, and local levels—has been costly. It’s past time to listen to the experts, such as those at the University of Nebraska Medical Center and the Nebraska Medical Center, as we create a roadmap for moving forward. Looking beyond the pandemic, Sara will work to support public health by advocating for safe opportunities to walk and bike, supporting our parks, and encouraging development that includes green spaces and allows for active lifestyles.
Sara also will work to promote public safety. We need to listen to and work with first responders and community members to adopt data-driven policies to keep our neighborhoods safe. Sara also will work to facilitate communication and build trust to help bring our community together.
Growing our Economy and Environmental Sustainability
We need to focus on growing our local economy and creating great jobs in an environmentally-sustainable way. Sara will push the city to partner with schools, colleges and universities, other nonprofits, and businesses to train people, create new jobs, and build an even better city.
Our long-term success as a city also requires conserving our natural resources and planning how we will adapt to our changing climate. Sara wants to pass on to our children and grandchildren a safe, healthy city and planet. Many choices that support this long-term goal also improve our quality of life now: it starts with holding trash and recycling providers to their obligations and also includes doing more to replace the dead and dying trees on Omaha’s public land; helping make walking, biking, and public transportation safer and more convenient; and encouraging environmentally-sustainable development.
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Meet Sara.
Sara Kohen is running for Omaha City Council for District 7, in northwest Omaha. She is also a mom, a wife, and an attorney who now works to engage families and build community as a school administrator. Sara is drawn to public service because she believes that we—as a nation, a state, and a city—have so much potential. Decisions made at the local level affect how we live our lives: From the roads on which we drive, to the parks and libraries that enhance our quality of life, to what kind of city and planet we will leave for our children, local decisions are crucial. Especially since the pandemic began, we have also seen how action—or inaction—by our elected officials affects our health and safety, as well as our livelihoods. Sara believes that we all have a duty to use our unique strengths to help our communities. Over the past several years, we have seen missed opportunities for leadership and for positive change. Sara is running for City Council because she wants all of us, our children, and our grandchildren, to have a brighter future here in Omaha. We have a lot of work to do, and Sara is ready to get started.
Sara has the experience, vision, and judgment to help lead Omaha through this challenging time and chart a path toward renewed growth and sustainability. A Nebraskan since 2008, Sara originally is from Virginia. She graduated summa cum laude from James Madison University in 2007, where she majored in Political Science and Spanish and was the university’s nominee for the Rhodes Scholarship. While at JMU, Sara volunteered as a Spanish interpreter at a legal aid organization. Seeing clients’ struggles, and motivated by a desire to help others, Sara decided to go to law school.
Sara attended law school at the University of Nebraska College of Law, serving as an Executive Editor for the Nebraska Law Review and graduating fourth in her class. Following graduation, in 2011, Sara and her family moved to Omaha, where she was a judicial law clerk for the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit. Sara subsequently worked as in-house counsel, focusing on real estate law, contract litigation, and insurance regulations. In 2015, Sara began helping her children’s school with community outreach and family engagement, working part-time at night and on weekends while continuing to practice law. Sara has since stepped away from practicing law to take on a bigger role helping educate our community’s children and spend more time with her husband and their four children.
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