Princess Sarah Culberson
Princess of Sierra Leone. Humanitarian. Educator. Author of "A Princess Found". Speaks on: Better Together, how to Build a Culture of Belonging and Allyship.
Princess Sarah was born in Morgantown, West Virginia, to an African father and a white mother. As an infant, she was put into foster care, then adopted by a loving white WV family.
She grew up contemplating and dealing with questions about her identity and her biracial roots. She fell in love with theatre in early childhood and won an undergrad acting scholarship to West Virginia University. She earned her MFA at The American Conservatory Theatre in San Francisco and joined the Los Angeles acting community.
Princess Sarah has danced and acted on stage as well as in films and TV. She has been a guest performer with the Urban Latin Dance Theater Company CONTRA-TIEMPO. However, her biggest role so far came when she decided to locate her biological parents. She learned that her biological mother died when she was just 11, and her father lived in a village in Sierra Leone, West Africa. From him she learned about her royal family, and that she is a Mahaloi, the granddaughter of a Paramount Chief, with the status of a princess. She also learned of the difficulties and privations of Sierra Leone’s people following a brutal 11-year civil war that ended in 2002.
The discovery of her unique heritage and her response to this new information changed her life forever. Now, as co-founder of the non-profit Sierra Leone Rising (formerly the Kposowa Foundation), she and many others work to support Education, Public Health and Female Empowerment in Sierra Leone.
Sarah has shared her inspiring story in a book she co-authored titled, A Princess Found. Her story has been featured on CNN, Good Morning America, BBC radio, LA Times, Singapore News and many other media outlets.
Princess Sarah travels around the world speaking on diversity and inclusion, empowerment, and leadership. She focuses on building a better community and culture both in and outside the workplace.
Better Together: How To Build a Culture of Belonging
The landscape of leadership and organizations have changed. Whether in a corporate or volunteer setting, team members and clients 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 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 (in leadership, teams, culture, and D&I).
Princess Found: You Are More Than Your Title
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. 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 personally and professionally:
• Build a community and culture
• Empowerment
• Embrace diversity and inclusion
• 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.
Diversity and Inclusion Program: Take Action and Transform
Princess Sarah’s program is more than an inspiring story of discovering her roots of becoming a princess. Sarah works with organizations to customize a message that is right for them.
Sarah has over 10 years+ of working with corporate and education groups on developing successful D&I programs as well as how to have conversations.
With Sarah’s program, groups will learn:
• How to listen to each other, even when you don’t agree
• How to create empathy
• Understand Intersectionality more
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. Along with real personal examples, Sarah provides actionable takeaways based on the needs of the organization.
Princess Sarah is absolutely amazing. She is a very engaging, compelling and a dynamic speaker with a powerful and impactful message. I can’t speak highly enough of Princess Sarah.
Seagen, Inc.
Sarah, you are so special–we’ve been honored to have you join us! There are already conversations about what else you can do with us. We have a tendency to pull great people into our circle.
Capital One
Although I knew Sarah had an interesting story and that she was a seasoned speaker, I could not have anticipated how compelling and impactful her presentation would be. The room was completely captivated as she walked us through her personal story of discovery, self identity and transformation. Her speaking style is incredibly engaging and her topic spoke to us in a way that made us take a moment of personal reflection and purpose. I would recommend her for a talk to any group.
USC
Sarah is AMAZING! She did an awesome job at both events relating both to young girls and to the older donor crowd at night. Everyone loved her and loved hearing about her incredible journey. Sarah is passionate and genuine — just a wonderful person and we loved having her as our guest speaker!
Bethany Christian Services
She was so energetic and vibrant and her story is amazing.
DA4S
It has been a true pleasure and honor to work with Princess Sarah Culberson! During our Diversity Month celebrations, Princess Sarah captivated us with her incredible story of overcoming adversity, prejudgment, and fears of the unknown. Her inspiring journey and eloquent delivery captivated our employees and encouraged us to embrace change and never overlook opportunities to make a difference! Thank you Princess Sarah for being a shining light!
Nestle Nespresso USA