About Sarah
Hi! I'm Sarah, a PhD student in Sociology at the University of Michigan and predoctoral trainee at the UofM Population Studies Center .
My research focuses on contemporary family formation in the United States, asking how economic uncertainty shapes women's fertility timing and intentions. My work is publicly funded by the Eunice Kennedy Shriver National Institute on Child Health and Human Development. As a Rackham Merit Fellow, I also receive funding from the University of Michigan Rackham Graduate School.
In 2023, I earned my BA with honors in economics and international studies from Johns Hopkins University. After graduation, I worked as a predoctoral research assistant at the Poverty and Inequality Research Lab (PIRL), supporting projects on economic mobility and decision-making during the transition to adulthood. Alongside the team at PIRL, I traveled the country to recruit and conduct interviews with dozens of Americans in early adulthood and midlife. (I might've knocked on your door! If so, hello!) This experience sparked my interest in the life course and the interplay between family decision-making and economic wellbeing.
Beyond family demography, I'm passionate about social scientific methods, particularly the design and implementation of surveys, non-parametric modeling, causal inference, and the integration of qualitative and quantitative data. I'm a former employee of the Bureau of Labor Statistics, where I supported data collection for the 2022 Economic Cost Index (ECI).
I love people, and I believe that the best way to know what Americans are thinking and doing is to ask them!
