Sarah Costa

Director of External Affairs, Sutter Health

This story is part of our July 2026 Young Professionals issue. To read the print version, click here.

Sarah Costa, 31, remembers the NICU at Sutter Medical Center in Sacramento with unusual clarity. Both of her sons spent time there after

difficult deliveries. “I am so connected to the mission of what Sutter does in our communities,” she says. “I’ve seen it firsthand. I’ve experienced it firsthand.”

Earlier this year, Costa became director of external affairs for Sutter Health’s Greater Sacramento and Greater Central Valley divisions, the result of nearly a decade of work that started with a coordinator role. Sutter’s mission, as the health system puts it, is “caring for our patients first and our people always,” and for Costa, that extends beyond hospital walls.

“I want to be part of that communication magic,” Costa says. “Connecting the dots.” That means sitting in a planning commission meeting to keep a project moving one day, or finding a new partnership with a local nonprofit the next.

Costa served on the Elk Grove Chamber of Commerce board from 2020 to 2025, chairing it in 2023, the youngest chair in the chamber’s history. She stepped down this year due to the chamber’s six-year term limit but plans to return to the board in 2027. She still co-chairs the chamber’s economic equity task force, which connects minority-owned businesses with resources.

“True change happens when we can talk policy over party. I never start a conversation in the Capitol by saying I’m a Democrat or a Republican. The real impact comes from people willing to talk to everyone.”

She’s also a leadership councilmember with Metro EDGE, the Sacramento Metro Chamber’s network for early to mid-career professionals. Through it, she helps plan events that connect young professionals with mentors and resources. Her own advice is straightforward: “The Sacramento region is small. You’ll cross paths with the same people again and again. Show up positively, ready to listen and engage, in any room.”

Outside of Sutter, Costa describes herself as a proud Elk Grovian. She grew up there, left for San Jose State University to study public relations, then spent a couple of years in Los Angeles before she decided to move back and put down roots and start a family. These days that family includes her husband, Anthony, two young sons, Caleb and Nathan, and Ella, their corgi.

Much of Costa’s approach to her work traces back to her vice president, Keri Thomas, who is approaching 30 years at Sutter. Costa often repeats something Thomas told her: The work isn’t a balance between life and career, it’s a blend of the two.

That blend shows up in how Costa talks about her family. She and her husband both have roots on Terceira in the Azores, and they met through Portuguese folk dancing at a statewide convention. Costa volunteers regularly with Sacramento’s Portuguese community and is a member of PALCUS, the Portuguese American Leadership Council of the United States, including its program connecting young members with legislators.

As for what she’d wish for the country on its 250th birthday, Costa’s answer split into two parts. The first was personal.

“My uncle has no college degree,” she says. “He just said, ‘I want to be an entrepreneur,’ and now he has eight or nine wineries and is building a hotel in Morgan Hill. That’s immigrant grit.” To Costa, that’s the American dream, alive and still proving itself true.

The second answer came from years in government affairs. “True change happens when we can talk policy over party,” she says. “I never start a conversation in the Capitol by saying I’m a Democrat or a Republican. The real impact comes from people willing to talk to everyone.” At Sutter, she says that translates into something simple: better care for patients, regardless of who holds office or which side of the aisle they sit on.

When she’s not at work, Costa is usually at a Portuguese hall. She still volunteers with the same folk group that brought her and her husband together, and she now watches her own sons learn the same dances. “It’s the coolest experience,” she says, “having that come full circle.”

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View the list of honorees from 2015 through 2026.

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