Sara Miller McCune founded the independent academic publishing company SAGE with her late husband George McCune in 1965. McCune is on the Board of Directors of the American Academy of Political and Social Scientists. In 2008, she announced the launch of Miller-McCune magazine, published in print and online, by the nonprofit Miller McCune Center for Research, Media and Public Policy, with support from SAGE.
McCune has funded schools in the developing world and made contributions to California organizations and educational establishments, including $2.5 million to Santa Barbara Cottage Hospital, $3.5 million to found the SAGE Center For the Study of the Mind at UCSB, and over $5 million to the Granada Theater Restoration Project.
She is also a trustee and supporter of the UCSB Foundation. She founded the charitable McCune Foundation in 1990. In 2003, she received the Spirit of Entrepreneurship award at the Entrepreneur of the Year awards, sponsored by Ernst and Young. Women’s Campaign International (WCI) recently honored her at an event entitled Shattering The Glass Ceiling: Honoring Inspirational Women Around The Globe.