Sage Warner is a strategist and storyteller who leads public engagement strategy at the intersection of policy, people, media, and culture. She is driven by the belief that people with lived experience should be central in the way we fight for change. As senior director of Campaigns at American Progress, she has scaled a national storytelling program that finds people at the center of major policy and positions them to break through to people who need to hear them most. Under her leadership, storytellers have reached more than 491.4 million people organically, appearing in outlets such as The New York Times and The Guardian, launching viral moments, sparking engagement from celebrities and accountability from elected officials, fueling grassroots movements, and attracting Oscar-winning filmmakers—with some going on to run for office.
Warner has nearly a decade of experience working with people at the center of defining moments in the country, from ICU nurses and patients during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic to survivors of political violence, families affected by the loss of Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and farmers and small-business owners affected by tariffs. She has developed campaigns across policies and advises organizations and leaders on how to build this kind of people-centered strategy into their own work.
Warner is also a storyteller herself, whose life was saved by the Affordable Care Act. Her writing has appeared in Fortune, Newsweek, and Ms. Before joining American Progress, she worked on federal campaigns at Planned Parenthood Federation of America. She holds a B.A. from Bard College and lives in Washington, D.C.