Regional & Community Outreach
sarah.savage@bos.frb.org
Biography
Sarah is a senior policy analyst at the Boston Fed. Prior to joining the Bank in 2013, she worked in research settings in the fields of substance abuse treatment at the University of Georgia and separately in criminal justice at the Crime and Justice Institute. Sarah studied the adoption of and readiness for evidence-based practices. As a graduate student at the University of New Hampshire, she worked at the Carsey Institute in an evaluation and research capacity.
As part of the Bank’s work to increase employment opportunities, Sarah is conducting research on barriers to positive labor force engagement of low- and moderate-income (LMI) parents in the region, with an intensive examination of the role of childcare needs. Sarah’s efforts have also focused on issues related to household economic security and equity. In partnership with three MA-based community colleges and two nonprofits, Sarah evaluated a pilot intended to help students with college affordability, connected with community colleges throughout the region to understand the financial complexities students face, developed deep knowledge of federally supported asset-building programs—Individual Development Accounts (IDAs)—and shared lessons learned related to the scalability of IDAs.
Sarah earned her B.S. from Babson College and her Ph.D. from the University of New Hampshire.
Publications
Federal Reserve’s Early Care and Education Work Group. 2023. “A Late Start: Understanding Public Investments in Education to Inform Supply-Side Investments for Early Learning.” Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco Community Development Research Brief 2023-03.
“Four Moms on the Consequences of Not Having Child Care for Nontraditional Work Schedules.” Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Invested: In Conversation (2022).
“Child care tradeoffs among Massachusetts mothers,” with Wendy Robeson. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Community Development Issue Brief 22-3 (2022).
“The Solution is no secret, we can fix child care,” with Marybeth Mattingly, Catherine Tonsberg, and Jess Carson. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Community Development Opinion Piece (2021).
“American Rescue Plan Act of 2021: Opportunities for Stabilizing the Most Fragile Part of the Child Care Market—Infant and Toddler Care.” Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Community Development Field Note, (21-1) 2021.
CommonWealth Beacon: “Major public funding needed for child care,” with Marybeth Mattingly and Marija Bingulac (2020).
CommonWealth Beacon: "State leaders must invest in child care," with Pratima Patil and Marybeth Mattingly (2020).
“Understanding Appetites for Addressing the Early Child Care Access Problem: Results from a Stakeholder Survey in New England,” with Marija Bingulac and Julia Wilson. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Community Development Issue Brief 20-2 (2020).
"The Effects of the Novel Coronavirus Pandemic on Service Workers in New England,” with Sara Chaganti, Erin Michelle Graves, Amy Higgins, Marybeth J. Mattingly, and Catherine Tonsberg. Federal Reserve Bank of Boston Community Development Issue Brief 20-1 (2020).
“High-Quality Early Child Care: A Critical Piece of the Workforce Infrastructure.” Community Development Framing Paper, May 2019.
Journal of Business & Finance Librarianship: Financial Pasts, Presents, and Futures of Community College Students of a Personal Finance Course, derived from Chapter 4 of the Boston Fed’s Resource Handbook for Community Colleges.
N.E. Journal of Higher Education: New Way to Break Down Barriers to Higher Education: Build "Financial Capabilities"
A Resource Handbook on Building the Financial Capabilities of Community College Students