Sarah Koenigsberg

Biography

Sarah Koenigsberg is a filmmaker, photographer, and educator whose work centers on stories of art, environment, and community in the American West. Her films and teaching cross disciplines, illuminating the power of storytelling as a medium through which to explore complex social, science, and policy issues. Since earning her BA in Environmental Studies and Politics at Whitman College in 2002, she has been inspired by the successes of place-based collaboratives, and she strives to facilitate that type of ground up problem solving in public land management, watershed restoration, and climate adaptation. Her award-winning feature documentary The Beaver Believers has screened worldwide, receiving the Green Spark Award from the American Conservation Film Festival and a spot on the Banff Mountain Film Festival World Tour, and her photography has been featured in publications such as Science, High Country News, The Flyfish Journal, and the National Climate Assessment. After producing the groundbreaking Restoring Riverscapes Workshop in collaboration with NOAA Fisheries West Coast Region in spring 2023, she’s embarked upon a mid-career plot twist, joining the USU Watershed Sciences department as a PhD candidate. Her research explores the intersection of science and storytelling in process based riverscape restoration and beaver rewilding.