Sara Shaw, PhD is a senior research scientist II on the child and family wellbeing supports team at Child Trends. Her work focuses on using mixed methods and community-based research to promote access to housing and education for youth and families experiencing housing and economic insecurity.

At Child Trends, Sara plays a key role in designing and launching projects at local, state, and national levels. This includes research that highlights barriers in accessing housing and early care and education, as well as research that connects families and youth experiencing housing insecurity and homelessness to high-quality education programs. For example, at the local level, she is currently part of a team working closely with residents in Newark, New Jersey to co-produce knowledge and policy recommendations to advance community-level change for families experiencing housing related challenges in the South Ward neighborhood. At the state level Sara has led evaluations of state Education for Homeless Children and Youth programs. At the national level, Sara was previously co-principal investigator on a project exploring the early care and education needs and preferences of families living in public housing developments.

She has presented to a wide variety of audiences including practitioners, policy makers, and researchers and has written research briefs, reports, white papers, and practitioner focused newsletters. Most recently she has been cited and interviewed as a housing expert by The New York Times, The National Broadcasting Company (NBC) and a local National Public Radio (NPR) affiliate station.

Sara holds a PhD in human development and family sciences from the University of Delaware.