Hey, thanks for visiting!
Maybe you’re here because we “met” on Twitter or IRL, or you’re looking up speakers or professors. However you’ve arrived, I’m grateful for your time.
I care deeply about eliminating poverty, increasing educational opportunities, and countering structural racism. My passions come from a long family tradition of both scholarship and activism. My maternal grandmother, Geraldine Youcha was a journalist who wrote detailed accounts of challenging social issues like alcoholism and childcare. My Poppa, love of my life since day 1, is a psychoanalyst whose got his start thanks to the first GI Bill. You can learn more about his story, and our mutual admiration, in Soledad O’Brien’s documentary Hungry to Learn. I’ve also benefitted from mentoring and coaching by creative thinkers, leaders, and activists including Ruth Wallace, David Figlio, Mike Rose, and Terri Dautcher.
I wear many hats, as my professional bio below reveals, but in addition to work I’m also Mom to two amazing teens and partner to my brilliant, sensitive husband Howard Strug. We live in Northern Liberties in Philadelphia with our dog and two cats. You might’ve met our pandemic puppy, Warren Bader Harris, or our eldest cat Pell (yes, named for the Pell Grant!) on twitter.
When I get a moment to myself, I like to spend it with my extensive collection of houseplants, working on a paint-by-number, reading memoirs, eating delicious food and drinking wine, or traveling. My favorite singer is Brandi Carlile, I’d go to the ends of the earth for good uni, I loved Ted Lasso, Kim’s Convenience, and Maid, I watch The Marvelous Ms. Maisel religiously, and I’ve seen A Star is Born nearly a dozen times.
Angela Davis said “I’m no longer accepting the thing I cannot change. I’m changing the things I cannot accept.” I live by those words.
For media attribution:
Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab is author of Paying the Price, College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream, senior fellow at Education Northwest, adjunct professor at the Community College of Philadelphia, and Founder of The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice.
professional bio
Sara Goldrick-Rab is a scholar-activist whose pathbreaking research, teaching, and advocacy has changed how higher education understands and supports college students. A sociologist, she focuses on reducing poverty by revealing unheard truths and sharing that knowledge with multiple publics. Sara’s award-winning book, Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream, documents the failures of policymakers and higher education institutions to make college affordable. Her scientific studies identifying and addressing college students’ basic needs for food, housing, childcare, transportation, and health supports sparked the internationally-known #RealCollege movement and inspired federal and state data collection and legislation, as well as countless privately-funded programs.
Sara has founded, led, and supported the growth of multiple organizations transforming higher education. In 2013 she founded the Wisconsin HOPE Lab, and for almost a decade oversaw its growth into The Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice, a 50-person national university center with an annual budget of more than $8M. In 2016 she founded Believe in Students, a national nonprofit that distributed more than $2M in emergency aid to students during the pandemic and empowers faculty to become powerful educators that recognize their students are humans first. In 2019 she translated her research findings into a product that makes it possible for low-income people to access emergency support quickly and with dignity; that work is now advanced by Beam, a Brooklyn-based company.
The recipient of many awards, Sara has appeared on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah and won the $100,000 Grawemeyer prize, which she distributed to students around the country. In 2016, POLITICO magazine named Sara one of the top 50 people shaping American politics. She earned a Carnegie Fellowship, a William T. Grant Foundation Faculty Scholars Award, the American Educational Research Association’s Early Career Award, and in 2021 she was named a Monumental Alumna by George Washington University. As a university professor, Sara earned tenure at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and spent nearly 20 years there and at Temple University.
Having retired from academia in 2022, Sara now collaborates, mentors, and writes with people and organizations around the world as CEO of EduOptimists. She also serves as senior fellow at Education Northwest and teaches Sociology 101 at the Community College of Philadelphia. Her next book, Real College, is under development.
Book Sara for a speaking engagement
Jamie Brickhouse
redBrick Agency
646. 281.9041
jamiebrickhouse@redbrickagency.com
Play Video
Play Video
A VOICE FOR CHANGE
"The research conducted by Dr. Sara Goldrick-Rab and the Wisconsin HOPE Lab has been a tremendous resource in helping me better understand the challenges students face in getting a fair shot at a college education, and what steps Congress can take to address them. Dr. Goldrick-Rab’s research and testimony before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee last year inspired me to introduce legislation to help working students and she was a trusted partner in developing the Working Student Act."
Tammy Baldwin
U.S. Senator - Wisconsin
"Sara Goldrick-Rab has become a trusted advisor to our state of Oregon— she's met with business people, with legislators, and even had dinner with the governor to talk about making community college tuition free. She came across not as an outspoken activist but as a common-sense voice for getting poor and middle-class kids into college. As the Oregon Promise has rolled out, I’ve met with hundreds of the more than 10,000 kids who have arrived and community college campuses all over our state— Sara played a big role in changing their lives and I personally want to extend my gratitude for her incredible help."
Mark Hass
State Senator - Oregon