Sarah Balser (she/her) is a second career social worker, getting her start in public health focused on violence against women prevention. From 2013-2021, Sarah worked on a variety of qualitative studies for the State of Ohio with the Ohio Substance Abuse Monitoring (OSAM) project. Sarah was named NASW-OH's emerging leader of the year in 2019 and served as Co-Regional Director for NASW-OH region 2, where she took a lead on policy initiatives and started a monthly online self-care hour for social workers during the pandemic. She currently serves on the Western Reserve Land Conservancy Medina and Summit County Chapter Board and coordinates events for NASW-OH region 2. Her research interests are related to intimate partner violence, sexual violence, and health outcomes with the goal to improve systems/policy level responses, prevent future victimization, and reduce adverse health and mental health outcomes.
Recent Publications
Burkhart, K., Minnes, S., Yamoah, O., Doernberg, E., Balser, S., Ciesielski, T., Dimitropoulos, A., Nock, N.L., & Freedman, D.A. (2021) The effects of COVID-19 related stress among parents and children in Ohio childcare centers: A mixed-methods study. Children’s Healthcare
Sherba, R. T., Dionne, J., Linley, J., Balser, S., Clark-Hammond, G., Gallant, K., Magier, E., McGlone, M., Taylor, A. (2021). . Ohio Mental Health and Addiction Services
Balser, S. (2022) An interview with Abigail Eiler and Sandra Momper. NASW Ohio Chapter Magazine Winter 2022. 5-8
Balser, S. (2022) The time is right for a social work PhD: An interview with Khalil M. Brown and Shellie Vincent. NASW Ohio Chapter Magazine Spring 2022. 9, 24.
Balser, S. (2021) Assessing boundaries NASW Ohio Chapter Magazine Fall 2021.
Freedman, D., Borawski, E., Burkhart, K., Dimitropoulos, A., Minnes, S., Nock, N., Ross, K., Tisch, D., Marks, M. B., Embaye, M., Ciesielski, T., Lee, E. K., Yamoah, O., Balser, S., Doernberg, E., Kovach, J., Lemos, C., Lewis-Miller, C., O’Brien, M., Ogland-Hand, C., Sommer, R., & Wyetzner, R. (2020). Ohio COVID-19 child care study: Technical report. ÐÇ¿Õ´«Ã½.
Presentations
Balser, S. (2021) "The essential worker for the workforce: A COVID-19 study reveals the importance of childcare: [Poster Presentation]. NASW Ohio 2021 Annual Conference. November 18.