2026 Alumnae Spirit of Service Award Recipient: Sarah Roberts Hart ’90

“What will you do with your life beyond Harpeth Hall?”

With only two and a half months before she crosses the lawn at graduation, senior Lucy Davis has been thinking about that question often. Whatever comes next, she knows her life will be rooted in service. As president of the Public Purpose Council, Lucy says the experience has lit “a fire in my heart to serve others and this community I love so much,” a commitment she also sees in many of her classmates.

That spirit reflects the school’s mission and vision. At Harpeth Hall, students build a foundation of confidence, honor, and leadership that empowers young women to embrace their strengths and lead lives of purpose.

Lucy holds these values dear.

“When people ask where I go to school, I get excited. I get to tell them that I go to Harpeth Hall,” Lucy said. “I get to tell them I am a Harpeth Hall girl, and let me tell you — it just takes one Harpeth Hall girl to leave a place with a lasting positive legacy, change the world, or impact a community.”

Throughout the school’s history, students and alumnae have done just that.

Since 2010, Harpeth Hall has recognized outstanding alumnae through the Spirit of Service Award, which has honored 16 Harpeth Hall or Ward-Belmont graduates whose work has made a meaningful impact on their community. Recent recipients have included Nashville changemakers Tallu Schuyler Quinn '98, Catherine Mayes Knowles '88, Florence Stumb Davis '55, and Julie Doochin '90.

Like the recipients who came before her, the 2026 Spirit of Service honoree, Sarah Roberts Hart ’90, saw a need in the Nashville community and found a way to meet it.

When she is not working as an acute care pediatric nurse practitioner at Monroe Carell Jr. Children's Hospital at Vanderbilt, Ms. Hart is dedicated to transforming the lives of people with disabilities through athletics, community, and the powerful experience of crossing the finish line.

In 2012, she co-founded the Nashville chapter of Achilles International, a global nonprofit that helps people with disabilities connect through sports.

Whether someone's goal is to race a mile for the first time, go for a weekly walk or ride in the park with a new community of friends, or to run a marathon, Achilles helps athletes succeed and experience the joys of achievement. The organization works with people of all ages living with a disability, including those who live with blindness or low vision, cognitive, developmental, and intellectual disabilities, limb difference, cerebral palsy, and more.

Ms. Hart’s love for the community shone at the 2026 Spirit of Service all-school assembly, where she was joined by some of the Achilles athletes she has guided and volunteers from the organization.

“I am incredibly honored and humbled to accept this award,” Ms. Hart said. “Harpeth Hall is a very special place to me. …I am 36 years out from graduation, and my Harpeth Hall friends are my very closest friends. …We show up for one another — to celebrate, to cry, to laugh, to be still and sit quietly and support each other. …These friends have helped me find the courage to start and continue my journey with Achilles International.”

At the beginning of that journey, Ms. Hart found her initial drive in founding the organization to help.

“I wanted to serve people with disabilities.” she said. “I quickly learned that service is best when it is a two-way street, not just a one-way street. I, in fact, received far more than I could ever give.”

Ms. Hart shared how her Achilles family served her. Through each experience with an athlete, she learned the power of community, courage, trust, grit, perseverance, the gift of time, and that the brightest lights often shine from within.

What she found is that the biggest strength of Achilles is that “when we come together our differences, disabilities, and vulnerabilities fall to the side.”

“We work toward a common goal. We recognize that we are more alike than different. We lift each other up. We focus on what we can do. And we celebrate every little accomplishment on the way,” Ms. Hart said.

Through service, dedication, and the compassion she shows each of her athletes at Achilles and patients at Vanderbilt, she has been known as a true “H-A-R-T of Gold.”

Speaking at an event in 2023, Ms. Hart’s daughter, Mason Hart '24, commented, “My mom is not just my superhero, but she is others’ superhero as well. I can wholeheartedly say that she is the strongest, most selfless person I know, and the inspiration for all I do. Day in and day out she gives to and loves those around her. …To know her, is to love her.”

For Lucy, stories like Ms. Hart’s are a reminder of the positive impact a Honeybear can have on the world around her.

“Harpeth Hall girls don't blend into this world — they change it,” Lucy said. “Confidently, boldly, and sometimes, even quietly. …So find it. Find your thing. An organization, a club, or a community that you are passionate about and let it light a fire inside of you.”