Sarah Tuneberg, MPH, is an entrepreneur, technologist, and seasoned startup executive who has worked across government and the private sector, leveraging data and technology to solve complex climate change, national security, and emergency response challenges.

Sarah has extensive experience assisting the US Federal government, states, municipalities, large corporations, and educational institutions in enhancing their preparedness and response and recovery capabilities. She is an expert on issues related to equity and inclusion in emergency management and disaster response. Sarah spearheaded policy and practice changes within the field, including moving from a diagnostic to a functions-based approach to vulnerability and the widespread utilization of equity lens theory. She is a thought leader in the space of climate risk assessment, mitigation, and adaptation. Together with her Geospiza team, she pioneered adaptation pathway modeling, a climate risk mitigation strategy, within enterprise business settings.

Sarah was tapped by Colorado’s Governor, Jared Polis, to lead the COVID Innovation Response Team in March 2020. Her portfolio was then expanded to include responsibility for statewide COVID-19 testing, containment, and technology. In this role, she built a team from 4 to more than 450, expanded daily testing from 50 to more than 50,000, built a service corp-based contact tracing program that saved taxpayers $30 million, and procured innovative technology that will drive health in Colorado for decades.

Sarah is driven by continuous learning and meeting the needs of those disenfranchised or marginalized by traditional systems. Sarah has been recognized as the 2018 Entrepreneur of the Year, Downtown Denver Partnership; 2018 US Representative, Global Entrepreneur Summit; 2019 Denver Business Journal’s 40 under 40; 2020 Cartier Women’s Initiative Fellow; 2x TedxMileHigh presenter; 2020 Inc. Magazines Female Founders 100.