Sara Bernstein

Sara Bernstein is a principal researcher who specializes in early childhood programs to better support children from families with low incomes.

Bernstein leads multiple studies about Head Start programs and families, from design to dissemination. She served as project director for the concurrent 2021–2022 Study of Family and Staff Well-Being in Head Start Family and Child Experiences Survey (FACES) Programs and the 2021–2022 Study of Family and Staff Experiences in American Indian and Alaska Native (AIAN) FACES Programs. Previously, she was deputy project director for the nationally representative FACES and AIAN FACES. Since 2015, Bernstein has been deeply involved on AIAN FACES by actively engaging a work group of Region XI Head Start directors (Region XI comprises programs funded by grants to federally recognized tribes and consortia), university-based researchers experienced in working with Native communities, and federal staff. In her role as principal investigator and then as project director, Bernstein contributed to the design, execution, archiving, and dissemination for the Early Head Start-Child Care (EHS-CC) Partnerships Sustainability Study of 2022, which was designed to understand facilitators and barriers to the sustainability of EHS-CC Partnerships funded through the first round of EHS-CC Partnership grants, awarded in 2015.

Before joining Mathematica in 2012, Bernstein worked on the Urban Institute’s mixed-methods study of child care providers and the child care subsidy system. She is a Classroom Assessment Scoring System (PK–3) affiliate trainer. Bernstein holds a Ph.D. in human development and social policy from Northwestern University.