Sarah V. Hayes is a fifth-year President’s Healy Fellow and doctoral candidate in Government at Georgetown University. Sarah's work falls under American politics, broadly focusing on the intersection of identity politics, mass political behavior, and public policy. In her dissertation, Sarah investigates how marginalized groups, particularly women, engage with social safety net programs; revealing how lived experiences reshape conventional theories of policy feedback and public opinion. Through a mixed methods approach (surveys, experiments, focus groups) and intersectional theoretical frameworks, her research agenda challenges assumptions about representation and political responsiveness. 

Her research has appeared in academic journals such as The Forum and The Journal of Women, Politics, and Policy, as well as news publications like The Washington Post. Hayes is also a co-author of Party at the Ballot Box (New York University Press, forthcoming).

Before joining Georgetown, Sarah was a graduate student at the University of California, Riverside, and received her B.A. from California State University, Fresno.