Sara Singer

Professor (by courtesy), Organizational Behavior
+1 (617) 894-3665

Sara Singer

Professor of Organizational Behavior (by courtesy)

Professor of Medicine, School of Medicine
Academic Area:

Bio

Sara J. Singer, MBA, PhD, is a professor of medicine at Stanford University School of Medicine and professor by courtesy at Stanford Graduate School of Business and Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies. Her research in the field of health care management and policy focuses on how organizational leadership and culture impact efforts to implement health delivery innovations, integrate patient care, and improve safety and reliability of health care organizations. A key feature of this research is the development of survey instruments that measure provider and patient perspectives on key interpersonal and organizational factors, enabling benchmarking, rapid and reliable feedback about the effectiveness and comparative effectiveness of delivery system innovations, and broader dissemination of more successful interventions.

Previously, Dr. Singer was Professor of Health Care Management and Policy at the Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health and the Department of Medicine at Harvard Medical School in the Mongan Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital. She acted as Director of Graduate Studies of the Harvard PhD in Health Policy Program (2016–2017) and Co-Chair of the Health Policy PhD Program’s Management Track (2013–2017), Director of the Healthcare Management Field of Study for the Masters in Public Health Program at the Harvard Chan School (2015–2017), Implementation Research Director for the Safe Surgery 2015 initiative (2010–2017), and Member of the University Benefits Committee (2012–2017). Previously, she was also Evaluation Co-Chair for Massachusetts’ Proactive Reduction in Outpatient Malpractice: Improving Safety Efficiency and Satisfaction (PROMISES) program (2010–2014) and Evaluation Team Member for the Academic Innovations Collaborative / Comprehensive, Accessible, Reliable, Exceptional and Safe (AIC / CARES) Collaborative (2012–2016). She also co-founded and served as Executive Director for the Center for Health Policy at Stanford, where she was a Senior Research Scholar and Lecturer (1993–2003). Dr. Singer served as Staff Director for the California Managed Care Improvement Task Force (1997–1998), a Senior Legislative Assistant for Health Policy in the US House of Representative (1994), and Health Policy Analyst at the Office of Management and Budget (1992).  

Dr. Singer directs the AHRQ-funded Engineering High Reliability Learning Lab (2015–present). She has published more than 100 articles in academic journals and books on healthcare management, health policy, and health system reform. Her publications have won numerous awards, including best paper awards from the Academy of Management’s Health Care Division in three consecutive years 2009, 2010, and 2011. She is the recipient of the 2013 Avedis Donabedian Healthcare Quality Award from the American Public Health Association and the 2014 Teaching Citation Award from the Harvard School of Public Health. Dr. Singer has conducted numerous studies for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, Veterans Administration Health Services Research & Development, and private foundations related to measuring and improving organizational culture, learning, teamwork, patient safety, integrated patient care, and the financing and delivery of health care. She holds an A.B. degree in English from Princeton University, a M.B.A. degree with a Certificate in Public Management from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. from Harvard University in Health Policy/Management with a concentration in organizational behavior. Her husband, Gordon Bloom, is founder of the Social Entrepreneurship Collaboratory (SE Lab) at Harvard, Princeton, and Stanford Universities. They live with their children, Audrey (18) and Jason (15) in Portola Valley, CA.

Academic Degrees

  • Phd, Program in Health Policy/Management, Harvard University, 2007
  • MBA, Certificate in Public Management, Stanford GSB, 1993
  • AB, English with Certificate in European Cultural Studies, Princeton University, 1986

Academic Appointments

  • Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Stanford School of Medicine, 2017–present
  • Professor of Organizational Behavior (by courtesy), Stanford GSB, 2017–present
  • Professor (by courtesy), Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, 2017–present
  • Affiliate Graduate Faculty, Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015–present
  • Research Health Scientist, Research & Development Program, Jamaica Plain Campus, Department of Veterans Affairs, Boston Healthcare System, 2014–present
  • Professor of Health Care Management and Policy (with tenure), Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2016–2017
  • Associate Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, in the Mongan Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital, 2015–2017
  • Adjunct Affiliate (non-voting), Center for Health Policy and Center for Primary Care & Outcomes Research, Stanford University, 2008–2017
  • Associate Professor of Health Care Management and Policy, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2013–2016
  • Assistant Professor of Medicine, Department of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, in the Mongan Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital, 2008-2015
  • Research Assistant, Center for Organization Leadership and Management Research, VA Boston Healthcare System, Research Service, 2010-2014
  • Assistant Professor of Health Care Management and Policy, Department of Health Policy and Management, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, 2007-2013
  • Visiting Fellow, Center for Health and Wellbeing, Woodrow Wilson School, Princeton University, 2009–2010
  • Senior Research Scholar, Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies, Stanford University, 1998–1999
  • Lecturer, Department of Health, Research and Policy, Stanford School of Medicine, and Public Policy Program, School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University, 2002–2003

Publications

Journal Articles

Sara Singer, Stephen J. Downs
American Journal of Health Promotion
August 2023
Olivia S. Jung, Fahima Begum, Andrea Dorbu, Sara Singer, Patricia Satterstrom
Journal of General Internal Medicine
July 2023 Vol. 38 Pages 2888–2897
Michaela J. Kerrissey, Sara Singer
Health Care Management Review
April 2023 Vol. 48 Issue 2 Pages 130–139
Michaela Kerrissey, Zhanna Novikov, Maike Tietschert, Russell Phillips, Sara Singer
Social Science & Medicine
March 2023 Vol. 320
Jonathan R. Clark, Maike Tietschert, Michaela Kerrissey, Mark Friedberg, Sara Singer
Health Care Management Review
January 2023 Vol. 48 Issue 1 Pages 92–108
Laura Vaughan, Lauren E. Eggert, Andrea Jonas, Arthur Sung, Sara Singer
Digital Health
December 14, 2022 Vol. 7
Lingrui Liu, Alyna T. Chien, Sara Singer
Health Care Management Review
October 2022 Vol. 47 Issue 4 Pages 360–368
Alisa Khan, Jennifer Baird, Michelle M. Kelly, Kevin Blaine, Deanna Chieco, Helen Haskell, Kelleen Lopez, Tiffany Ngo, Alexandra Mercer, Bianca Quiñones-Pérez, Mark A. Schuster, Sara Singer, K. Viswanath, Christopher P. Landrigan, David Williams, Donna Luff
Pediatrics
June 2022 Vol. 149 Issue 6
Martin P. Charns, Justin K. Benzer, Nathalie M. McIntosh, David C. Mohr, Sara Singer, Deborah Gurewich
Medical Care
May 1, 2022 Vol. 60 Issue 5 Pages 361–367
Jeffrey Pfeffer, Sara Singer, Martin Stepanek
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
May 2022 Vol. 64 Issue 5 Pages 370–376
Megan E. Vanneman, Jean Yoon, Sara Singer, Todd H. Wagner, Mary K. Goldstein, Jiaqi Hu, Derek Boothroyd, Liberty Greene, Donna M. Zulman
Medicine
February 18, 2022 Vol. 101 Issue 7
Nancy Song, Molly Frean, Christian T. Covington, Maike Tietschert, Emilia Ling , Hassina Bahadurzada, Michaela Kerrissey, Mark Friedberg, Sara Singer
Medical Care Research and Review
January 10, 2022
Sara Singer, Katherine C. Kellogg, Ari B. Galper, Deborah Viola
Health Care Management Review
September 7, 2021 Vol. 47 Issue 2 Pages E21–E31
Bianca Mulaney, Rebecca Bromley-Dulfano, Erin K. McShane, Martin Stepanek, Sara Singer
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
September 2021 Vol. 63 Issue 9 Pages 719–730
Michael Anne Kyle, Emma-Louise Aveling, Sara Singer
Medical Care Research and Review
August 2021 Vol. 78 Issue 4 Pages 326–337
Katherine C. Kellogg, Jenna E. Myers, Lindsay Gainer, Sara Singer
Organization Science
January 2021 Vol. 32 Issue 1 Pages 181–209
Jeffrey Pfeffer, Stacie Vilendrer, Grace Joseph, Jason Kim, Sara Singer
Journal of Occupational and Environmental Medicine
November 2020 Vol. 62 Issue 11 Pages E601–E610
Kevin H. Nguyen, Alyna T. Chien, David J. Meyers, Zhonghe Li, Sara Singer, Meredith B. Rosenthal
Inquiry: A Journal of Medical Care Organization, Provision and Financing
August 2020 Vol. 57
Joanna Veazey Brooks, Bethany Sheridan, Antoinette S. Peters, Alyna T. Chien, Sara Singer
Health Care Management Review
July 2020 Vol. 45 Issue 3 Pages 232–244
Morgan Shields, Sara Scully, Heidi Sulman, Christina Borba, Nhi-Ha Trinh, Sara Singer
Community Mental Health Journal
August 2019 Vol. 55 Issue 6 Pages 916-923
Kim Peterson, Johanna Anderson, Donald Bourne, Martin Charns, Sherri Sheinfeld Gorin, Denise Hynes, Kathryn McDonald, Sara Singer, Elizabeth Yano
Journal of General Internal Medicine
May 2019 Vol. 34 Issue 1 Pages 90-98
Kathryn McDonald, Sara Singer, Sherri Sheinfeld Gorin, David Haggstrom, Denise Hynes, Martin Charns, Elizabeth Yano, Michelle Lucatorto, Donna Zulman, Michael Ong, R. Neal Axon, Donna Vogel, Mark Upton
Journal of General Internal Medicine
May 2019 Vol. 34 Issue 1 Pages 24-29
Justin Benzer, Sara Singer, David Mohr, Nathalie McIntosh, Mark Meterko, Varsha Vimalananda, Kimberly Harvey, Marjorie Nealon Seibert, Martin Charms
Journal of General Internal Medicine
May 2019 Vol. 34 Issue 1 Pages 43-49
Karen J. Blumenthal, Alyna T. Chien, Sara Singer
Family Practice
December 2018 Vol. 35 Issue 6 Pages 718-723

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