
Sarah Nelson joined the A1 Development team at the start of 2025, bringing in a diverse background centered around project management. She grew up on a crop & cattle farm near Lake Preston, SD and attended South Dakota State University for four years before transferring and finishing her degree at North Central University in Minneapolis, MN.
After college, Sarah began her career working in a youth center that focused on serving at-risk kids in southern Minnesota and then moved into that organization’s national headquarters in Denver, CO. Her work there centered around project management and coordination of cross-functional teams focused on resourcing and serving staff nationwide with programming and training events. After moving back to South Dakota in 2020, Sarah got involved in the economic development industry working for a local EDC and then a local architecture firm further bolstering a background in architecture, master site planning, zoning regulations, and community development work.
In the Brookings community, Sarah currently serves on the Brookings Area United Way board and is a planning taskforce member for the Leadership Brookings program run by the Brookings Area Chamber of Commerce. But more than all of that, her favorite and most important title is “Auntie Sarah” and enjoys spending time with and spoiling her brother’s three children any chance she gets.