Sam is a community health expert and mixed-methods researcher with extensive experience in program implementation and evaluation as well as implementation science. Her work is focused on advancing racial and health equity through rigorous research and community-informed evaluation frameworks.

As a director at Equal Measure, Sam supports projects that highlight systemic inequities in communities, ensuring that evaluation practices are grounded in equity and effectiveness. She collaborates closely with stakeholders to design and implement evaluation strategies that provide actionable insights and drive meaningful change. Her projects include the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Supporting Policy Ecosystems to Make Children and Families a Priority (ECOSYS) Initiative, the American Cancer Society’s Health Equity Ambassador Program, and the Gates Foundation’s National Scale Enterprise. Sam is also an affiliate faculty member at Drexel University’s Dornsife School of Public Health and the University of Pennsylvania School of Social Policy and Practice.

Before joining Equal Measure, Sam served as the Senior Research Officer at the City of Philadelphia’s Office of Children and Families. She applied her expertise in public health research to lead an implementation science portfolio to reduce racial disproportionality in the Philadelphia child welfare system. Her career in Philadelphia also included significant contributions in the nonprofit sector, where she led quality assurance activities and served as the director of a Federally Qualified Health Center. Sam’s motivation to address community-level trauma and structural disadvantage in urban communities of color has been a driving force throughout her career. Her academic journey, which includes an MPH and PhD from Drexel University, focused on place-based, community-engaged research and the study of adverse community experiences in historically disenfranchised communities.

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Her dogs, Kita and Charli, and DIY home projects.