Dr. Sarah Beth Kennedy is an educator dedicated to teaching rhetorical awareness to communicators of all kinds: the tourism professionals "speaking" through placemaking Sarah centers in her academic research, animal advocates at farmed animal sanctuaries and elsewhere arguing for reconsideration of the roles nonhuman animals play in U.S. life, and the undergraduate students Sarah teaches with a focus on promoting personal development and self-advocacy skills. Sarah's goal as an educator is to equip students with rhetorical tools for framing their own arguments convincingly and humanely as well as the confidence around written and verbal communication that students need to express their perspectives and experiences.

After earning her doctorate in Communication and Rhetoric from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in 2021, Sarah advised Individual Studies students at Hudson Valley Community College, where she continues to teach English and Individual Studies courses with the goal of equipping students with rhetorical tools and healthy academic and writing practices that offer them both personal meaning and professional benefit. Sarah is currently an academic administrator working in international education, using her theoretical background in place studies and experience teaching and advising to support first-year abroad programs at a private research university.