Dr. Sarah Childress serves as the Executive Director of the newly established Office of Entertainment in the Mayor’s Office. She leads the city’s efforts to support, strengthen, and grow Nashville’s creative community. Her work focuses on building relationships, developing trust, and partnering with local stakeholders to amplify existing initiatives and create impactful new programs for the city’s entertainment ecosystem.
She previously served as Director of Strategy & Operations at Nashville PBS and has worked across education, public media, and film programming. She is also a filmmaker, a former university instructor, and the founder of the Nashville Film Festival’s Education & Engagement program. She currently serves as vice chair of the Belcourt Theatre board and as a docent at the Frist Art Museum.
Dr. Childress holds a B.A. in international studies from Emory University, an M.A. in English with a concentration in cinema studies, and a Ph.D. in English with a concentration in cinema and media arts from Vanderbilt University. She has traveled to six of the seven continents and the USSR.
