Truman School of Government and Public Affairs

Sara Gable is Director of the Institute of Public Policy.  She completed her BS and MS in Family and Human Development from Utah State University and her PhD in Human Development and Family Studies from Penn State University.  Her academic career began as a post-doc in the Department of Psychology at the University of Missouri and she has remained at the University ever since, first as a faculty member and State Extension Specialist in the former College of Human Environmental Sciences and now as faculty in the Truman School of Government and Public Affairs.  In her role as a State Extension Specialist, Sara supported Missouri’s child care workforce with evidence-based educational programs including Child Care Program Administration:  Everything BUT the Children and Healthy Plants/Healthy Bodies, a preschool plant science and nutrition education curriculum.  Her past research addressed the etiology and outcomes of excess weight that persists across childhood; national and state policy for child care and the child care workforce; and, most recently, young children’s early mathematical development (Multisystemic approach to early math development and math learning disability, P20 HD109951, David Geary, Sara Gable, Jordan Booker, and Jessica Rodrigues).  From 2016-2019, Sara was Faculty Fellow in the MU Office of Research and Economic Development and provided leadership for the university’s internal funding programs.