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Sarah B. Hunter

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Senior Behavioral and Social Scientist; Professor, Pardee RAND Graduate School
Santa Monica Office

Education

Ph.D. in social psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara; M.A. in social psychology, University of California, Santa Barbara; B.A. in psychology, New York University

Overview

Sarah Hunter is a senior behavioral scientist at the RAND Corporation and a professor at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She currently assists in quality assurance for the Justice, Infrastructure, and Environment unit. Hunter's primary areas of interest are improving services for vulnerable populations; building community capacity for evidence-based program delivery; health care integration; implementation science; and program evaluation. She has published nearly 100 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and RAND publications in a wide range of fields. Hunter currently serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment.  She has served as core faculty at the Implementation Research Institute at Washington University and on several grant review panels for the National Institutes of Health, most recently as a standing study section member for the Dissemination and Implementation Research in Health committee. Prior to joining RAND as a full-time researcher, Hunter was a Project Air Force summer associate for two years. Hunter received her B.A. from New York University and her M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from the University of California at Santa Barbara. 

Research Focus

Pardee RAND Graduate School Courses

Recent Projects

  • Building System Capacity Through Continuous Quality Improvement
  • Effectiveness of Technology-Assisted Diffusion for Evidence Based Treatment
  • Enhancing Housing First Programs with a Social Network Substance Use Intervention
  • Housing for Health Program Evaluation
  • Welcome Baby Implementation and Outcomes Evaluation

Selected Publications

Sarah B. Hunter, Melody Harvey, Brian Briscombe, Matt Cefalu, Evaluation of Housing for Health Permanent Supportive Housing Program, RAND (RR-1694-BRC), 2017

Hunter, S.B., Han, B., Slaughter, M.E., Godley, S.H., & Garner, B.R., "Predicting evidence based treatment sustainment: Results from a longitudinal study of the Adolescent Community Reinforcement Approach," . Implementation Science, 12, 2017

Sarah B. Hunter, Lois M. Davis, Rosanna Smart & Susan Turner, Impact of Proposition 47 on Los Angeles County Operations and Budget., RAND (RR-1754-LAC), 2017

Hunter, S.B., Rutter, C., Ober, A.J., & Booth, M., "Building capacity for continuous quality improvement (CQI): A pilot study," Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 81, 2017

Watkins, K.E., Ober, A.J., Lamp, K., Lind, M., Setodji, C.M., Osilla, K.C., Hunter, S.B., McCullough, C.M., Becker, K., Iyiewuare, P.O., Diamant, A., Heinzerling, K., & Pincus, H.A, "Collaborative care for opioid and alcohol use disorders in primary care: The SUMMIT randomized clinical trial," JAMA Internal Medicine, 8, 2017

Hunter, S.B., Schwartz, R.P., & Friedmann, P.D., "Introduction to the special issue on the studies on the implementation of integrated models of alcohol, tobacco, and/or drug use interventions and medical care.," Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 60, 2016

Blanchard, J., Hunter, S.B., Osilla, K.C., Stewart, W., Walters, J., & Pacula, R.L. , "Systematic review of the prevention and treatment of prescription drug misuse," Military Medicine, 181(5), 2016

Sarah B. Hunter, Patricia Ebener, Matthew Chinman, Allison Ober & Christina Y. Huang, Promoting Success: A Getting to Outcomes guide to implementing continuous quality improvement for community service organizations, RAND (TL-179-NIDA), 2015

Honors & Awards

  • Gordon Allport Intergroup Relations Prize, Best Paper 2007, Society for the Psychological Study of Social Issues
  • Outstanding Publication Award, American Evaluation Association
  • Fellow, Association for Psychological Science

Commentary

Publications