Sarah Phillips is the Education and International Initiatives Manager for the National Science Foundation Partnerships for International Research and Education (NSF-PIRE) ”U.S.- Japan Cooperative Research and Education on Terahertz Dynamics in Nanostructures” grant at Rice University. In collaboration with the PI and Education Director, she manages all aspects of the NanoJapan: International Research Experience for Undergraduates Program. Since 2006, this program has sent 130 young U.S. engineering and physics students to Japan for research, language, and cultural study. For the 2013 - 2014 academic year, she was concurrently a Professional Associate of the East-West Center and participant in the center's 2013 Asia Pacific Leadership Program.

Prior to her position at Rice, she worked at the Institute of International Education (IIE) on the U.S. Department of State funded Benjamin A. Gilman International Scholarship and completed a brief assignment at the IIE office in Doha, Qatar. She received an M.L.A. in International Studies from the University of St. Thomas, Houston and a B.A. in History, Political Science, and East Asian Studies from Minnesota State University, Moorhead. She will begin her doctoral studies in Fall 2014, pursuing a PhD in Educational Foundations from the University of Hawaii where her research will focus on international education for STEM students.