Sarah Boisvert’s experience bridges workforce training and advanced manufacturing. She co-founded Potomac Photonics, Inc. to build UV lasers, laser machine tools and provide contract micro manufacturing. Following its sale in 1999, Ms. Boisvert founded Fab Lab Hub, part of the Fab Lab Network created at MIT. In Santa Fe, NM, she operates two Fab Labs that offer Digital Badges, paid internships and entrepreneurship programs, while providing contract manufacturing services. She founded the New Collar Network with ten other fab labs to bring Digital Badges to North America. In 2016 Sarah conducted a study on the digital skills needed for operators and technicians in manufacturing. The data is the basis of her book, The New Collar Workforce. Wishing to make the stories of New Collar workers accessible to young people, in 2019 she authored a new book that features Augmented Reality links to worker videos.
Sarah recently consulted for the “Future Workforce Now” project organized by the National Governors Association, the Fab Foundation and FHI360 to develop workforce policy options for States. She has been a keynote speaker for many organizations, and has been interviewed most recently by the BBC. Sarah is a Fellow and Past President of the Laser Institute of America, an America Makes Ambassador, and has served on the Boards of numerous technical societies.