Sara Egan supports Openlands as Director of Conservation Planning where she advances initiatives that expand and connect protected lands, creating resilient places for both people and nature. With 18 years of experience in urban planning and landscape architecture, Sara brings expertise in bridging these disciplines to foster collaboration across sectors and scales. Before joining Openlands, she worked at Design Workshop, where she led community driven planning projects focused on land conservation, parks, greenways, and public realm design throughout the country, earning awards at the local and national level. She also served as an adjunct professor in the Master of City Design Program at the University of Illinois Chicago, where she mentored the next generation of urban thinkers committed to environmental and social equity.
Sara holds a Bachelor of Landscape Architecture and a Master of Urban and Regional Planning from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Sara’s passion for conservation is guided by a belief that thriving communities are rooted in a healthy relationship with the land. She brings a rare ability to navigate the full spectrum of scale—from shaping regional policy to realizing projects on the ground.
She enjoys exploring nature across our region through kayaking, fossil hunting, hiking, mountain biking, birding and archery and is actively involved in the American Planning Association, and a member of Lambda Alpha International.
LinkedIn: Sara Egan
Contact Information
- Email: segan@openlands.org
- Phone: 312.863.6154
