Sarah Pedersen

Sarah Pedersen is a senior researcher in the Health Division at AIR. Pedersen is an expert qualitative and mixed methodologist with experience managing, developing, and implementing programs and policies that contribute to maternal and women’s health, health equity, health care quality and access, and person- and family-centered care. She uses multiple methodologies to collect and translate data to elicit evidence-informed, actionable findings that help clients and their target audiences meet their goals. These methodologies include community-based participatory research, human-centered design, policy analyses, literature reviews, environmental scans, key informant interviews, focus groups, listening sessions, observations, and document reviews. Additionally, Pedersen is well-versed in engaging a variety of stakeholders, such as healthcare leaders and professionals, healthcare experts, patients, and families, throughout the research lifecycle.

Pedersen has led and contributed to research and policy analysis for federal, state, and local audiences on an array of public health and health care topics, such as maternal health care, COVID-19, care coordination, the dual-eligible population, and healthcare delivery models (including women’s health and pediatric primary care). Furthermore, she has a deep knowledge and understanding of maternal health through her lived experience as a certified and practicing birth and postpartum doula.