Associate Professor of Psychology

Sara Weston

Turning data into decisions

I'm a behavioral scientist who transforms complex research into actionable insights. From survey responses to Senate hearings, my work bridges the gap between data and policy.

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Sara Weston

By the Numbers

Research That Matters

0
Total Citations
h-index: 22
0
Peer-Reviewed Publications
Spanning personality, health, and methods
$1.5M+
Research Funding Secured
NIH and foundation grants as PI
50K+
Households Reached
Through policy-informed support programs

About

My Research

I'm a behavioral scientist who studies how our personalities, emotions, and social worlds shape health and well-being over time. I use big datasets, advanced stats, and creative measurement tools to understand both what changes and what stays the same about people.

My work ranges from building new ways to measure personality to turning thousands of open-ended survey responses into insights that help shape policy—like my COVID-19 research with the RAPID-EC project. At the heart of it all, I want my science to be transparent, reproducible, and useful for both researchers and the communities we serve.

Expertise

How I Work

Data to Insight

Text analysis, longitudinal modeling, Bayesian methods—turning complex datasets into clear findings.

Research to Action

Policy briefs, stakeholder translation—research that reaches beyond academia.

Complex to Accessible

Award-winning teaching, open science—making data accessible through clear storytelling.

Tools & Methods

R, SQL, NLP pipelines, Power BI—building reproducible research infrastructure.

Featured

Selected Work

Highlights from my research and policy impact

Policy Impact

RAPID-EC COVID-19 Research

Led data science for 50+ survey waves tracking 3,300+ families. Findings informed Senate Finance Committee staff on Child Tax Credit expansion.

Recognition

Tykeson Teaching Award 2025

Highest teaching honor at the University of Oregon—awarded to one faculty member in Natural Sciences each year.

Publications

Recent Research

View All Publications

Blog

Latest Writing

• 8 min read

AI Literacy as Graduate Education Infrastructure

In every movie in The Fast & The Furious franchise, there’s a moment in the last third of the final race where a driver uses NOS—a type of …

generative ai productivity code
• 5 min read

The Voice Interview Method

I have a problem that I suspect is common among academics: I know more than I can articulate. I have expertise and opinions and ideas, but when I sit …

generative ai productivity code
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