[6] Sawyer has provided commentary on social justice and public policy for many outlets including Al Jazeera, CNN, Commercial Appeal, Essence, Forbes, HuffPost, MLK50, MSNBC, NPR, Roland Martin, and Time.
[4] In 2020, We Can't Wait, a documentary chronicling her 2019 mayoral campaign, was named Best Home Towner Feature at the Indie Memphis Film Festival.
[12] From 2008 to 2014, Sawyer was a human capital analyst supporting diversity initiatives at NAVSEA PEO IWS, a program office of the United States Navy.
[14] Having lived in Washington, DC for a decade, she returned home to Memphis and led a team in teacher licensing for Shelby County Schools.
[4][15] Following the trial of George Zimmerman for the killing of Trayvon Martin, and the domestic attack on the Washington Navy Yard in 2013, Sawyer became engaged in social justice and political activism.
In 2014, she organized her first protest at the National Civil Rights Museum in the wake of the decision by a St. Louis grand jury not to try Darren Wilson for the killing of Michael Brown.
[10] Sawyer organized a vigil in December 2015 after a Cleveland prosecutor declined charging the police officers who shot and killed Tamir Rice.
The vigil was held in Health Sciences Park in front of the statue of Confederate General and Ku Klux Klan Grand Wizard, Nathan Bedford Forrest.
[9] In 2019, Sawyer was at the center of controversy when old tweets from the politician surfaced in which she communicated racist, anti-police, anti-disability, and anti-LGBTQ sentiments.