Faculty

Sarah Burgard is a professor of sociology and, by courtesy, of epidemiology and public policy at the University of Michigan. She is also a research professor in and director of the Population Studies Center and a research affiliate in the Survey Research Center, both at the Institute for Social Research. She conducts research and leads data collection on the social stratification of health across the life course with population-based survey data and has published extensively on the social factors underlying health disparities by socioeconomic status, gender, and race/ethnicity. Burgard has published recently on the health consequences of job loss, financial shocks, debt, housing instability, and material hardship, with central focus on the links between employment and health. She has been director of the Population Studies Center since July 2020 and helps to lead the PSC’s NIH-funded training and support programs for faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and doctoral students. She also helps to direct the NIH-funded Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America.

PhD and MA, University of California, Los Angeles; BA, Reed College.