In the News: Sarah Hamersma

Associate Professor Sarah Hamersma and graduate student Mitch McFarlane will use the $75,000 grant to investigate the impacts of SNAP food assistance on maternal and infant health.

Sarah Hamersma, associate professor of public administration and international affairs, believes the number of Onondaga County residents who lose coverage will be less than the 9.5% estimated by a federal government study. That’s because New York’s Medicaid and other public health insurance programs are more generous than those offered by many other states, she says.

"What happens when we think of social goods—those that contribute to human thriving? Is scale just as problematic in those cases, or might we use its powers for good?" asks Sarah Hamersma, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

Maxwell professors Sarah Hamersma and Gretchen Purser were interviewed for the ProPublica article, "A Tax Credit Was Meant to Help Marginalized Workers Get Permanent Jobs. Instead It’s Subsidizing Temp Work."

Sarah Hamersma, associate professor of public administration and international affairs, discussed statistical grammar and the importance of communicating results honestly and effectively on The Hidden Curriculum podcast.

The discussion covered the history of governing abortions in the U.S.; how the Dobbs v. Jackson decision might affect access to abortion and other reproductive services; impacts the decision could have on economic and health outcomes and voting behaviors in upcoming elections; and what precedent this decision might set for other Supreme Court decisions going forward. 

National COVID-19 trends mask large differences in trends across U.S. states. Reductions in March & April were due almost entirely to declines in New York. The failure of other states to enact strong physical distancing protocols and/or reopening too early has led to our current national surge in cases.

Sarah Hamersma, an associate professor of public administration and international affairs, recently won a $140,058 award from the WT Grant Foundation to support her project “Keeping the ‘Great Equalizer’ Fed: SNAP Access and Young Adult’s Educational Engagement.” 

"With recent investments in higher education (mis)directed toward increasing the marginal comforts of the most comfortable students, we have an opportunity to advocate instead for a rejection of such investments, sacrificing luxuries for the sake of needier students," says Sarah Hamersma, associate professor of public administration and international affairs.

"Typically people who qualify for higher SNAP benefits are in the worst health, so this suggests there is something really protective about the SNAP benefits," says Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs.