Meet Sarah
Executive leader. Strategic advisor. Advocate for responsible innovation.
Sarah Aghassi founded PersicaSage Consulting, LLC to help organizations navigate complexity with clear-eyed leadership, strategic judgment, and practical solutions.
For more than twenty years, Sarah Aghassi has worked at the intersection of government, business, and community. She believes that how organizations lead through change matters deeply, especially when decisions affect people, organizations, communities, and trust.
Sarah is a licensed attorney in California, holding a Juris Doctor from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, and brings legally trained judgment to every engagement. She draws on advanced training from Harvard (Leadership for Senior Executives, Generative AI, Agentic AI, Strategy, Governance, and Agentic Systems), UC Berkeley (AI Business Strategy), the London School of Economics (AI Ethics), Cornell (Change Management), and Prosci (Certified Change Practitioner) to help leaders think clearly about the challenges ahead.
Sarah’s leadership career includes nearly two decades with the County of San Diego, where she served in senior roles across some of the most complex areas of local government.
As Interim Chief Administrative Officer, she led one of the largest county governments in the nation, overseeing more than 20,000 employees, 40+ departments, and an $8.5 billion budget during a time of significant transition. The role came with one condition: whoever served as interim could not be a candidate for the permanent position. Sarah stepped into that role intentionally to provide continuity and stability while the Board of Supervisors conducted its search for a permanent Chief Administrative Officer, without her own candidacy in the mix.
During that period, she implemented new Board policy directions, directed emergency housing and food relief for families affected by severe flooding, advanced regional emergency management strategies, and laid the groundwork for a successful leadership transition.
Before her appointment as Interim CAO, Sarah served for more than thirteen years as Deputy Chief Administrative Officer and General Manager of the County’s Land Use and Environment Group. She oversaw six departments, more than 2,100 staff, and a budget approaching $800 million, delivering programs and services impacting the daily life for more than three million residents and the millions who visit the region each year. The portfolio included infrastructure, land use planning, development, environmental quality, libraries, sustainability, parks and recreation, and disaster response and recovery. Running it meant answering for everything at once: diversity of programs, operations, workforce, budget, technology, and working alongside elected officials with very different political philosophies from one another on the policies each one cared about.
Her achievements during this period were substantial and touched every part of the County organization. Sarah led the creation of a teleworking plan for the entire County enterprise that resulted in 62% of staff on remote or alternate schedules, reducing employee vehicle miles and avoiding the need for a $250 million public health building. She also spearheaded the implementation of an enterprise-wide customer experience initiative across all 40+ County departments, that won national recognition.
She established the Office of Sustainability and Environmental Justice and developed a regional decarbonization framework. She directed major organizational restructuring, including consolidating land use departments, streamlining the land development process, and transitioning the Air Pollution Control District into an independent regional agency.
Earlier in her County career, Sarah served as Director of the Office of Strategy and Intergovernmental Affairs, where she directed the County’s federal, state, and local advocacy efforts. She advanced complex and sometimes controversial policy issues with bipartisan support, co-chaired local and statewide task forces on healthcare and public safety reform, and built collaboration systems across 40+ departments. She was also selected to serve as the County’s Federal Economic Stimulus Liaison, overseeing federal recovery funding across programs spanning housing, health services, infrastructure, public safety, energy, and workforce training.
Before joining the County, Sarah served as Director of Public Policy at the San Diego Regional Chamber of Commerce, where she led advocacy on behalf of nearly 3,000 member organizations representing 400,000 employees on issues including housing, transportation, healthcare, and government efficiency. She also oversaw the Chamber’s Economic Research Bureau and Communications functions. That experience gives her a distinctive ability to understand how strategy, operations, policy, and stakeholder dynamics intersect across sectors.
Sarah also served as Adjunct Faculty at the University of San Diego, teaching State and Local Government in the Department of Political Science and International Relations. Her commitment to developing the next generation of public leaders reflects the same values she brings to her consulting and mentorship work.
Sarah is deeply engaged in helping organizations make sense of AI as part of a broader commitment to responsible innovation. She has earned certifications in Generative AI and Agentic AI from the Harvard Data Science Review, studied AI business strategy at UC Berkeley and AI ethics at the London School of Economics, and recently completed a three-month intensive AI Leadership: Strategy, Governance and Agentic Systems program through Harvard. Sarah brings this training directly into her advisory work, helping leaders understand what AI can and cannot do, where it creates value, and where it introduces risk.
She co-created Our AI Futures Lab with Karen Boyd, PhD at the Policy and Innovation Center. Sarah is passionate about responsible, human-centered technology that strengthens programs and services for teams, communities, and clients. Our AI Futures Lab supports governments, nonprofits, and civic organizations in adopting AI thoughtfully, offering workshops, custom trainings, and practical policy guidance.
Sarah earned a Juris Doctor (J.D.) from the University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, and a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.) in International Relations with minors in Business Administration and Philosophy from the University of San Diego. Go Toreros!
Sarah grew up in San Diego and still calls it home. She loves to travel, photograph the world around her, and spend time with family, friends and her sweet and sassy dog, Saffron.
What drives her is simple: bringing perspective, experience, and heart to help people and organizations achieve impact that lasts.
