The path that led Sara Burnett into the hospitality and tourism industry was not a linear one thus her strengths are cross-disciplinary in nature ranging from website design and marketing to scientific and anthropologic research to editorial styling. An academic at heart, Burnett began her working career while still in college as a research assistant at the Baker Institute for Public Policy in Houston, Texas working on projects concerning the repatriation of displaced peoples after the Yugoslav War in addition to aiding Dr. Jennifer George at the Jones Business School at Rice University in areas concerning sustainable real estate development and their effect on local economies.
Post graduation and armed with a few foreign languages, Burnett moved to Hawaii where she taught a vast array of subjects from computer science to economics and world history to high school students. For a decade she also assisted with the Bishop Museum and the Pacific Science Association on various Pacific region marine conservation projects and papers whose topics included coral bleaching, marine acidification, biodiversity, invasive species eradication, sea level rise, the use of space technologies for fresh water conservation, and the anthropological conservation of indigenous cultures.
During her time volunteering as a docent at the Honolulu Museum of Art, Burnett found a passion for editorial design and creative marketing. She developed what quickly became one of the top 10 wedding websites in the world and amassed a social media following of over half a million. This new passion led her into website development and design, content marketing, editorial design and beyond, perfectly combining her academic nature with creativity drawn from a vast range of experiences, travels, and multi-disciplinary pursuits. After being named one of the most influential social media users in the state of Hawaii, Burnett worked with the Hawaii Tourism Authority developing romance travel and destination wedding marketing concepts and content marketing materials.
Her successes in the tourism industry in Hawaii were noticed and Burnett soon found herself in the Caribbean, which she now calls home, where she completed her master’s certificate in Hospitality Marketing from Cornell University and can be found working for various hotels, restaurants, and tourist boards throughout the region.