Published on July 24, 2026
By: Kate Lopez
Sarah Neuroth is used to the elements: she’s endured the cold in Alaska, spent a decade in DC and thrived in the heat in Los Angeles. The element of surprise is one she’s quite familiar with.
Neuroth graduated from Mizzou in 2011 with a bachelor’s in English literature, then earned her master’s in English with an emphasis in creative nonfiction in 2013. The next chapter of Neuroth’s life story took place in Anchorage, Alaska, where she worked as a technical writer.
“Writing proposals for an Alaskan Native corporation kicked things off for me in a big way. I learned the federal procurement process, joined the professional proposal writer’s organization and eventually went on to work for larger companies in more senior roles,” Neuroth said.
One such company is Deloitte, a global consulting firm. Neuroth has been the Senior Manager for Government and Public Sector in their Burbank, California location for the past year and a half. In this role, she works as a Deal Architect in the Pursuit Center of Excellence, a central hub that responds to requests for proposals (RFPs) from the federal government.
Neuroth works closely with the Deloitte account teams to address RFPs and submit a compliant, complete and compelling proposal to earn a contract award.
“They can request proposals for all kinds of contracted work, from maintaining the dining facilities on a military base to managing cloud infrastructure for highly secure organizations,” Neuroth said. “The RFPs my team assists with are usually multi-million-dollar contracts that require multi-volume written documents in the proposal response and often involve an oral presentation to the government evaluation board.”
Neuroth’s collegiate tutoring experiences are a recurring motif in her proposal work.
“My favorite part of my job is doing one-on-one sessions with people who are subject matter experts but are maybe unsure of their writing skills. It feels like I’m back in the Writing Center! I often use the same tools to guide the writer through the requirement (the prompt) and reference the evaluation criteria (the rubric) and gently guide them toward a finished work product. My job isn’t to write it for them, but to help them get their ideas on paper,” said Neuroth.
Neuroth started tutoring at the Writing Center in 2011, later becoming the graduate assistant for Dr. Harper and Dr. Harms’ Honors College tutoring course for the 2012-13 school year. She credits her time at the Writing Center for helping her understand the importance of both giving and receiving feedback, all the while guiding others to hone their own writing voice and style.
“Being a tutor helped me learn how to provide constructive feedback and empower the person on the other end,” Neuroth said. “These are skills I use today in my professional life – if I can act as a guide, we’re more likely to get new, different ideas and come across creative solutions.”
To Neuroth, creativity and collaboration are themes of critical thinking.
“The skills you learn in college, like determining information’s credibility and use, don’t show up in a job posting but have endless practicality,” Neuroth said. “If you can show how to get started on a project with ambiguity, produce a plan to complete it and get back on track when things don’t go according to plan, then you’ll be in great shape.”
Neuroth has had many successful projects, but the most meaningful one is motherhood.
“My proudest moments are mostly related to my kids, who are 11 and 7 years old. Seeing them conquer a skill or achieve something they’ve worked hard on makes me so immensely proud,” Neuroth said. “Outside of anything related to my husband and kids, my proudest moments are graduating with my master’s degree and successfully landing my first real job. That set me on a career trajectory that I didn’t realize was possible!”