Sara Burr, Ph.D.
Founder and Owner
The Burr Group, LLC

My love of the outdoors blossomed during a wonderful childhood in the woods of east Tennessee surrounding our home, and while camping with my family in the Smokey Mountains and hiking the Appalachian Trail with my Dad. When I was a teenager, we moved to the San Fernando Valley in California; before population growth overwhelmed it. I was the girl who exercised our neighbors’ horses on long rides in the wild hills around Mulholland Drive. In those years, I also developed an ardor for the ocean. My Dad, ever my mentor, also loved the sea from his Navy days, and throughout my life took me ocean sailing, swimming, and occasionally deep-sea fishing. We explored the Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic inlets of Cape Cod, the Baja Gulf, and the Pacific Ocean together.

During college and graduate school, my interests in nature were diverted by the social movements of my generation: civil liberties for minorities and women; and for an end to the Viet Nam war. I pursued a Ph.D., became a political science professor at UW-Parkside. Ultimately, however I committed to a hands-on career in neighborhood preservation and entrepreneurial economic development. I liked to take action as much as study the actions of others. I settled in Madison where these opportunities abounded.

In my late forties, I joined the Department of Natural Resources as a natural resources educator focusing on air quality (shades of southern California). I felt a sense of fulfillment in returning to my earliest passions--for the outdoors and as an educator. I had great fun developing new media and voluntary programs for adults and children teaching the sciences essential for their success as caretakers of our planet. My goal as an environmental educator was to nourish understanding and a love of nature because I believe love motivates those who nurture the planet. This mission remains at the core of my current business, The Burr Group, which provides strategic consulting and communications to businesses and nonprofit organizations on environmental issues.

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