Sara E. Elder

Sara Elder is Divisional Vice President, Fair Employment & Compliance, HR Policy & Centralized Leave for Sears Holdings Management Corporation. In this role, Ms. Elder oversees the human resources functions that support Sears, Roebuck and Co. and Kmart Corporation in connection with employment practices program compliance, human resources policy, responses to formal charges of discrimination and centralized leave and accommodations management.  In addition, she oversees Sears, Roebuck and Co.'s and Sears Logistics Services, Inc.'s affirmative action programs. 

Prior to joining the human resources function, Ms. Elder was Assistant General Counsel, Complex Litigation for Sears, Roebuck and Co., with a focus on class action and commercial litigation and employment practices. She joined Sears following eight years of private practice, concentrating in the areas of commercial litigation, employment practices and creditors' rights.

Ms. Elder has frequently presented and trained on the issues of leave and accommodation management and was a contributing author to the inaugural issue of the West publication Successful Partnering Between Outside and Inside Counsel (Employment Law Section) (1999-2000 ed.). Most recently, Ms. Elder was named as one of the 2012 Top 100 Under 50 Diverse Executive & Emerging Leaders by Diversity MBA Magazine.

Ms. Elder graduated from DePaul University College of Law, where she was editor-in-chief of the DePaul Business Law Journal, and received her undergraduate degree in history and sociology from Washington University in St. Louis summa cum laude.