Sara Shostak

Sara Shostak is a Professor of Sociology and Health: Science, Society & Policy at Brandeis University, where she also serves as the inaugural director of the Vic '63 and Bobbi Samuels '63 Center for Community Partnerships and Civic Transformation (COMPACT). Her work bridges sociology, public health, and environmental studies, focusing on health inequalities, urban agriculture, and community partnerships. She holds affiliations across multiple departments including the Heller School for Social Policy and Management, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and Environmental Studies.

Shostak earned a Ph.D. from the University of California, San Francisco, an M.P.H. from UCLA, and a B.A. from Reed College. Her research emphasizes interdisciplinary approaches to understanding how social structures and environmental factors shape health outcomes, particularly through projects involving marginalized communities and stakeholders like farmers, healthcare providers, and policymakers.

Her research interests include medical sociology, science and technology studies, environmental racism, and food justice. She has pioneered studies on urban agriculture’s role in addressing health inequities and explored ethical dimensions of genetic testing in epilepsy families. Her work often integrates community engagement and participatory methods to ensure research impacts policy and practice.

Awarded the Eliot Freidson Outstanding Publication Award and the Robert K. Merton Book Award, Shostak has secured grants from the National Science Foundation, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and Merck Family Fund. Her teaching innovations have been recognized with the Michael L. Walzer '56 Award for Teaching. She leads COMPACT to foster civic engagement and partnerships between Brandeis and local communities, emphasizing transformative change through collective action.