Sara Dixon Spivy

Special Assistant for Legal Affairs, Cook County Bureau of Technology

Sara serves as general counsel for the Cook County Bureau of Technology (BOT), which provides IT support and expertise to seven elected offices and over 22,000 Cook County employees. Sara leads all aspects of legal operations, including contract negotiation, procurements, data privacy, and IT policy. Additionally, Sara assists the CIO and executive cabinet with leadership strategy. 

Immediately before joining BOT, Sara was an Assistant State's Attorney in the Complex Litigation Unit. She defended Cook County's interests in State and Federal courts in that role. 

Before serving in the State's Attorney's Office, Sara had an extensive career in criminal justice, having served for almost 15 years as a Cook County Assistant Public Defender. She tried cases in misdemeanor and felony courts in that role, including over 100 felony bench trials and dozens of jury trials. When Sara left that office, she was the supervising attorney for the Civil Division and managed over 30 attorneys and caseworkers. 

Sara has been active in local politics and served as the campaign manager for successful county-wide judicial candidate Judge Preston Jones. Sara has been a Leadership Greater Chicago Fellow since 2018 and is an alumna of Illinois Women’s Institute for Leadership (IWIL). Sara was elected to the Oak Park and River Forest High School Board of Education in 2015 and 2019 and served as Board President from 2020 to 2022.