Sarah Weilant is a policy researcher at RAND. As a multidisciplinary policy researcher, she works to affect change in communities, systems, and organizations through her work related to equity, well-being, resilience, workforce and organizational development, transportation resilience, and education. She also considers that collectively, these are all drivers of achieving national security, another focus of her work, with considerations in how to address countering violent extremism, illicit networks, and military sexual assault and harassment. She uses qualitative research methods and leads mixed-methods teams to conduct analysis and provide recommendations applicable to policy and planning. Weilant engages with federal, local and international strategic decisionmakers to design conceptual frameworks and logic models, develop metrics, and design and conduct primary data collection through focus groups, interviews, and U.S. nationally representative surveys. Her work is not only conducted across the U.S., but also includes work in Southeast Asia and Africa.
Her work prior to RAND included refugee resettlement at the International Rescue Committee, and agricultural development in the Peace Corps. Weilant holds a Masters degree in public policy from American University's School of Public Affairs, and a B.A. in French.
Selected Publications
Gore, Kristie L., Samantha Cherney, Sarah Weilant, Justin Hummer, Linda Cottrell, and Coreen Farris, Considerations Around the Use of Intensive Outpatient Programs for Service Members Who Experienced Sexual Trauma in the U.S. Military, RAND (RRA668-2), 2023
Weilant, Sarah, Aaron Strong, and Benjamin M. Miller, Incorporating Resilience into Transportation Planning and Assessment, RAND Corporation (RR-3038-TRB), 2019
Linnea Warren May, Laurie T. Martin, Sarah Weilant, Grace Gahlon, Allyson D. Gittens, Douglas Yeung, Rebecca Ann Lawrence, Anita Chandra, COVID-19 Community Response Emerging Themes Across Sentinel Communities, RAND, 2021
Brown, Ryan Andrew, Todd C. Helmus, Rajeev Ramchand, Alina I. Palimaru, Sarah Weilant, Ashley L. Rhoades, and Liisa Hiatt, Violent Extremism in America: Interviews with Former Extremists and Their Families on Radicalization and Deradicalization, RAND Corporation (RR-A1071-1), 2021
Curry Hall, Kimberly, Kirsten M. Keller, David Schulker, Sarah Weilant, Katherine L. Kidder, and Nelson Lim, Improving Gender Diversity in the U.S. Coast Guard: Identifying Barriers to Female Retention, RAND Corporation (RR-2770-DHS), 2019
Tamara Dubowitz1, Christopher Nelson, Sarah Weilant, Jennifer Sloan, Andy Bogart, Carolyn Miller and Anita Chandra, "Factors related to health civic engagement: results from the 2018 National Survey of Health Attitudes to understand progress towards a Culture of Health," BMC Public Health, 2020
Bond, Craig A., Aaron Strong, Nicholas Burger and Sarah Weilant, Guide to the Resilience Dividend Valuation Model, RAND (RR-2130), 2017
Alexander D. Rothenberg, Arya Gaduh, Nicholas E. Burger, Charina Chazali, Indrasari Tjandraningsih, Rini Radikun, Cole Sutera, Sarah Weilant, "Rethinking Indonesia’s Informal Sector," World Development, 80, 2016