Sarah Hokanson, Ph.D.

Sarah Hokanson was appointed Associate Provost for Academic Initiatives & Operational Excellence in November 2024. In this role, she leads ongoing and new academic initiatives and works to strengthen academic operations through partnerships with the provost-reporting areas and the schools and colleges. Included in her portfolio is helping oversee implementation of the action items within the inaugural contract of the Boston University Graduate Workers Union.

Sarah joined Boston University in 2015 as Director of Postdoctoral Affairs, launching the inaugural University-wide postdoc office. In 2019, she was promoted to Assistant Provost for Professional Development & Postdoctoral Affairs, expanding her work to support professional development for PhD students. In 2022, she was promoted to Assistant Vice President and Assistant Provost for Research Development and PhD & Postdoctoral Affairs, recognizing her leadership in PhD education and allowing her to conceptualize a new research development office at BU. In addition to her administrative work, she is also a co-creator of national professional development programs, including the National Institutes of Health funded Postdoc Academy and the National Science Foundation funded Inclusive STEM Teaching Project.

Prior to Boston University, Sarah served at the British Consulate-General-Boston as Deputy Director of Science and Innovation. In this diplomatic role, she established collaborations between US and UK academic institutions and helped direct UK political visits to the northeast that were designed to advance UK science policy priorities.

Sarah earned her BA in Chemistry from Boston University (CAS ’05) and her PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biophysics from the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine. Following her graduate training, she was a Ruth L. Kirschstein Postdoctoral Fellow at Cornell University in Chemistry and Chemical Biology.