Sarah Guckenburg

Overview

Sarah Guckenburg specializes in research and evaluation of public health, substance misuse prevention, violence prevention, justice, and school mental health initiatives. As a Senior Research Associate with the Justice and Prevention Research Center, Guckenburg collaborates with states, counties, and program staff to design and implement evaluations to best meet their needs, learn from their work, and demonstrate impact.

Guckenburg serves as the Co-Director of alcohol and drug misuse prevention evaluations in two counties, Montgomery and Berks, in Pennsylvania. As part of this work, Guckenburg has collaborated with county staff to design tools and resources to evaluate the prevention programs implemented in schools and throughout the community and has assisted with each county’s needs assessment process. Guckenburg also directs the evaluation of Advancing Wellness and Resiliency in Education (AWARE) project in Vermont, a grant focused on systems change to increase access to mental health for students. Guckenburg has also been part of the teams evaluating school safety programs throughout the country and the Massachusetts statewide violence prevention initiative, Safe and Successful Youth Initiative.

Prior to joining WestEd in 2006, Guckenburg worked for Join Together, a project of Boston University School of Public Health that works to advance effective alcohol and drug policy, prevention, and treatment. While at Join Together, Guckenburg coauthored How Do We Know We Are Making a Difference? A Community Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drug Indicators Handbook , a publication that assists organizations in their data collection procedures to monitor and evaluate drug and alcohol prevention programs.

Education

• MPH in social and behavioral sciences, Boston University
• BA in psychology, Wheaton College

Select Publications

Stern, A., Guckenburg, S., Baskerville, T., Zimiles, J., & Fronius, T. (2023). Learning from the experiences of Texas schools implementing behavioral threat assessment programs. WestEd. https://wested2024.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/11173915/JPRC-Behavioral-Threat-Assessment-and-Implementation-Experiences-of-Texas-Schools_FINAL_ADA.pdf

Stern, A., Guckenburg, S., & Carter, C. (2022). Youth voice in juvenile justice research. WestEd. https://wested2024.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/11172849/Youth-Voice-in-Juvenile-Justice-Research_Brief_ADA.pdf

Stern, A., Guckenburg, S., Persson, H., & Petrosino, A. (2019). Reflections on applying principles of equitable evaluation. WestEd. https://wested2024.s3.us-west-1.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2024/07/11170035/resource-reflections-on-applying-principles-of-equitable-evaluation.pdf