Sarah Kirn has been the Vital Signs program manager at GMRI since 2002. In this capacity she oversees the development, implementation, and administration of Vital Signs. She divides her time between collaborating with stakeholders (teachers, scientists, and students) on Vital Signs program development, fundraising, tracking trends in information technology and mobile computing, delivering teacher training programs, and participating in conferences and regional working groups.

Kirn holds a B.Sc. in geology-biology from Brown University. In 1996 Kirn earned her USCG 100 Inland Master of Auxiliary Sail Vessels license and began leading 5- to 26-day sailing courses for the Hurricane Island Outward Bound School. When her curiosity with what was going on in the Gulf of Maine beneath her pulling boat surpassed her interest in what was going on in the boat, she went inland to graduate school at Orono. While immersed in marine science, Kirn kept a hand in education, working as a teaching assistant and serving as an NSF GK-12 Teaching Fellow providing science instruction in area middle schools. Kirn came to GMRI after completing her M.Sc. degree in oceanography at the University of Maine.