Princess Sarah Culberson

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 belonging and allyship, and 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.

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 in 2004. 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 both personally and professionally:

• Build a community and culture
• Embrace who you are
• 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.

In ‘Fear to Fabulous’ Sarah Culberson explores how she achieved her dream of connecting with her biological family: an experience that changed the trajectory of her life for the better. She began her journey faced with the fear of rejection but stepped into a fabulous world where she met her family, connected with her tribe, and accepted the responsibility of supporting those with low visibility. Discovering her heritage revealed a new purpose where she actively works alongside community leaders in order to promote various infrastructure, public health, and female empowerment initiatives throughout Sierra Leone. With both a BFA and MFA in theater, Sarah mastered public speaking and acts as an advocate to campaign for diversity, equity, and  self-discovery.  Sarah inspires others with her experience of how she embraced the unknown and ventured into a wonderful world where she found what she is meant to do in her lifetime.