Summary
Sara Perez's research focuses on contributing to evidence-based, equitable policy to hold industries and employers accountable for offering stable work arrangements, livable wages and benefits to the workforce. She aims to use an interdisciplinary approach encompassing economics, social justice and public health. Perez’s work strives to reshape labor policy to redistribute power equitably among employers and employees, dismantle problematic systems and construct new ones with health equity at their core (funded by the RWJF through the Health Policy Research Scholars Program). Sara also has research experience in tobacco control, particularly examining tobacco industry interference and health advocacy in low-and-middle-income countries (funded by Nevada DRIVE).
Faculty mentor
Research and teaching interests
- Perez's research and teaching interests focus on health policy, the commercial determinants of health, structural violence, underemployment, involuntary part-time work and workers’ health and economics.
Awards
- Health policy research scholar, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Baltimore, MY, 2024 to 2028; home institution mentor: Dr. Sarah Friedman
- Nevada DRIVE scholar, University of Nevada, Reno, 2023 to 2025; faculty mentor: Dr. Eric Crosbie
- Student poster presenter, Delta Omega Student Poster Session, Academic Public Health Caucus of the American Public Health Association’s Public Health Exposition, Atlanta, G.A., 2023
- Outstanding Graduate Researcher award, Graduate Student Association, University of Nevada, Reno, 2023
- Outstanding Domestic Student award, Graduate Student Association, University of Nevada, Reno, 2023
- Graduate Dean’s Merit scholar, University of Nevada, Reno, 2023
- Senior scholar in the School of Public Health, University of Nevada, Reno, 2022
- Nevada Women’s Fund scholar, N.V., 2021 to 2025
- Reno Rodeo Foundation scholar, N.V., 2020 to 2025
Selected publications
- Han, E., Crosbie, E., Ling, P., Perez, S., Khan, H., Hiatt, R. & Kearns, C. (2025). Tobacco industry influence on breast cancer research, policy and public opinion: Scoping the Truth Tobacco Industry Documents.Tobacco Control. Advance online publication.
- Crosbie, E.*, Perez, S.**, Camaerna, A. R., Vivanco, V. O., Severini, G., Gutkowski, P., Sosa, P., & Sebrie, E. (2024). The perfect storm: Applying the multiple streams framework to understand the adoption of a WHO Framework Convention on Tobacco Control-based policy in Mexico. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. 21(7).
- Crosbie, E.*, Perez, S.**, Hartman, J., Sheretz, L., & Klepeis, N. E. (2024). Measuring air quality in smoking and nonsmoking areas of Nevada casinos (Reno/Sparks): Potential exposure of minors to secondhand smoke. Environmental Health and Toxicology, 39.
- Crosbie, E.*, Gutkowski, P., Severini, G., Pizarro, M. E., Perez, S.**, Albuquerque de Figueierdo, B., Rodríguez, D., & Sebrie, E. (2022). Tobacco Advertising, Promotion and Sponsorship in the Americas: Lessons from Uruguay and Argentina. Pan American Journal of Public Health, 46.
- Crosbie, E.*, Erinoso, O.**, Perez, S.**, Severini, G., Sebrie, E. (2022). Moving in the right direction: Tobacco packaging and labelling in the Americas. Pan American Journal of Public Health, 46.
- Crosbie, E.*, Perez, S.**, Cortez, P., Garron Monje, A. K., Machin, N., Lopez, G., & Sebrie, E. (2022). Tobacco control in Bolivia: Civil society efforts in securing a comprehensive law. Nicotine & Tobacco.
Education
- Ph.D. in Public Health, specializing in Social and Behavioral Health from the University of Nevada, Reno, 2028 (Anticipated)
- B.S. in Community Health Sciences, specializing in Public Health, and minor in Biology from the University of Nevada, Reno