Sara Vance Waddell has built a significant collection of artworks by women, people of color and artists in the LGBTQ community, including the quilts of Dr. Carolyn Mazloomi and Cynthia Lockhart. A media expert, she was brought in to work with the Cincinnati Museum of Art and that association changed her life. She is on the Brooklyn Museums Council For Feminist Art, is a member of the National Museum of Women in the Arts board of trustees and board president of the Carolee Schneemann Foundation.