Sarah was born in Cairo, Egypt, in 1956, to an American mother and a Saudi father who met while they were studying at UC Berkeley. She was educated at the German Evangelical High School in Cairo, from kindergarten through 10 from the American Community School in Beirut in 1974. By age 16 she was fluent in English, Arabic, German and French. She studied history (BA) and anthropology (MA at Stanford University, and Law at the University of Pennsylvania (JD, 1985). She was a classmate of Azizah al-Hibri there.

Sarah became a member of the PA bar in 1987, but is now in inactive status in preparation for retirement. Sarah got married in 1986 and had two children in quick succession, so she decided to choose a branch of law that she could combine with being a parent. She became a solo practitioner through the end of 2012, doing mostly immigration work. However, she continued to be engaged with non-profits in her city. In 1989, she joined the board of the YWCA in Philadelphia and remained on it until her resignation in1993. The YWCA was having financial problems at that time, so Sarah volunteered for the unpaid position of Executive Director for about 18 months to help shepherd the organization through reorganization.

Sarah was one of the founding members of KARAMAH, and has followed its development from a distance. In 2009, she established the Austelle Foundation which has given grants to KARAMAH for the past 3 years. Sarah now has both the time and the interest to become more actively involved with KARAMAH, and has now returned to the board.