Sarah Van Norden’s research interests lie at the intersection of spatial sociology, human geography, demography, GIS and public health. She has investigated the effects of tourism and gentrification on Harlem, New York’s black churches, and is interested in the ways that different notions of place engender and perpetuate institutional structures, power arrangements, and knowledge generation.
She also has applied geographically weighted regression to the relationship of small area economic loss indicators and county-level opioid mortality rates in the United States, to examine place effects on aggregate health indicators.
Sarah has extensive experience in non-profit research and operations management. Her previous positions have included Manager of International Financial Operations for the Population Council in New York and Deputy Director of Finance in the Center for Biostatistics in AIDS Research at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Sarah earned an M.S. in Applied Social Research and a Certificate in Geographic Information Science from Hunter College, City University of New York. She holds a B.A. in Russian and Spanish from Vassar College.
