Sara Heller

J-PAL Affiliated Professor

Assistant Professor of Economics

University of Michigan

Sara Heller is an Assistant Professor of Economics at University of Michigan. She studies policy interventions aimed at reducing crime and improving life outcomes of low-income youth. Her research has explored how cognitive behavioral therapy-based programs impact juvenile crime and schooling outcomes. She is currently working on several projects to determine how and why summer jobs affect disadvantaged youth. In 2015, her Science paper on summer jobs was named Outstanding Experimental Field Trial of the year by the American Society of Criminology. She was a recipient of the National Science Foundation/National Bureau of Economics Crime Research Fellowship and the Institute of Education Sciences Pre-Doctoral Research Fellowship.

Sara has served as a lecturer at J-PAL training events.

She holds an MPP from Georgetown University and a PhD in Public Policy from the University of Chicago.