Sara Hellmüller holds a licence in international relations from the Graduate Institute of International Studies in Geneva and a MA with a focus on human security and negotiation / conflict resolution from the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University in Boston, USA. She wrote her Master Thesis on gender and race based humiliations during apartheid in South Africa and analyzed potential approaches to their healing and their effects on current levels of violence.

During her studies, Sara Hellmüller taught at a kindergarten and worked in an orphanage in South Africa, interned with a local NGO in Mongolia, was a trainee at the Swiss Embassy in Nigeria and a volunteer at the African Division of "terre des hommes" in Geneva. After graduation, she worked as an intern with UNDP in East DR Congo. Sara Hellmüller joined swisspeace in December 2009 as a project assistant to the Mediation Support Project.