Sara Israelsen-Hartley is an adjunct instructor in the DeWitt Wallace Center for Media & Democracy in the Sanford School of Public Policy. A journalist with 20 years of experience, Sara specializes in exploring solutions to public health problems. In addition to her reporting, Sara is also a Research & Writing Fellow with the Harvard Kennedy School Government Performance Lab where she writes, edits, and designs publications to help governments deliver better outcomes for their communities.

Sara has a master of public policy degree with a concentration in health policy from Duke, and a bachelor’s degree in communications with an emphasis in print journalism and a minor in Spanish from Brigham Young University. Sara has received awards from the National Press Foundation, the Association of Health Care Journalists and the Society for Features Journalism for her reporting, but is equally proud of that one time she beat her three sons in Mario Kart. She and her family live in Raleigh.