Sarah Aird holds a bachelor’s degree in political science from Bryn Mawr College and a master’s degree in international relations from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs. In 1998 she began attending the Washington College of Law, American University, where she worked as a Dean’s Fellow for the War Crimes Research Office, authored half a dozen feature articles for the legal publication Human Rights Brief, and was selected by the Dean to attend the Nicaraguan indigenous rights Awas Tigni case before the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in Costa Rica. As a student attorney with the International Human Rights Clinic, she represented a number of clients seeking asylum, which sparked her interest in immigration matters. She also worked for the immigrant rights organization AYUDA as a policy intern, where she researched legislation affecting battered immigrant women and drafted materials on VAWA II for service providers. Two years later, as a Haywood Burns Fellow, she interned with the international legal team of the Center for Human Rights Legal Action (CALDH) in Guatemala where she assisted in the preparation of a genocide case against Romeo Lucas García.