Sara grew up in the rural Kirksville area, attended public school in Brashear, Missouri, and attended Northeast Missouri State University (Truman State). She was employed at Kirksville College of Osteopathic Medicine (A.T.Still University) in 1985, for a number of years, before taking time off to raise her family. She began working on the Truman Campus in the Military Science Division in 2006 as a secretary.