Sara Lamback is a senior director in JFF's Workforce and Regional Economies Practice, providing project leadership, labor market analysis, and technical assistance on projects that help low-income adults train for and succeed in jobs with career advancement potential. Sara came to JFF as an Education Pioneers Fellow with the Credentials That Work team, where she developed a tool for community colleges to engage regional employers in developing high-demand degree and credential programs.
Sara has 15 years of experience across the fields of education and workforce development; she has worked as a practitioner, researcher, and educational program evaluator. Immediately before joining JFF, Sara conducted research at Harvard University’s Achievement Gap Initiative, where her work focused on secondary-to-postsecondary transitions, effective school leadership, and developing systems-change initiatives.
While at Harvard, she co-authored the report Creating Pathways to Prosperity: A Blueprint for Action, which examined the opportunities and impediments to systemic reform of our nation’s approach to education and workforce development. Sara is a former teacher and has taught at the middle school, high school, and college levels; she began her career as a sixth-grade teacher in the Mississippi Delta.
Sara earned her master's degree in education policy and management from Harvard Graduate School of Education. She also has a master's degree in French literature, with specialization in gender studies, from Middlebury College and a bachelor's degree in French and political science from Wake Forest University.
