Associate Professor, Silver School of Social Work
New York University
Dr. Sarah Narendorf is an Associate Professor at NYU Silver School of Social Work. She previously served for twelve years on faculty at the Graduate College of Social Work at the University of Houston and was Associate Dean for Research and Faculty Development. Dr. Narendorf’s research focuses on ensuring successful transitions to adulthood for young adults who face this transition while navigating intersecting structural barriers. She has conducted research in partnership with collaborators across the United States to understand risk and resilience characteristics for young adults experiencing homelessness and has examined the intersections of housing instability and mental health crises. This work has resulted in publications in leading social work and mental health journals, including Journal of Adolescent Health, Community Mental Health Journal, American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, and Children and Youth Services Review. She is currently conducting an intervention development study for a new intervention, Charge Up!, which adapts Critical Time Intervention and Cornerstone Coordinated Community Care to support mental health for young adults transitioning from homelessness to supported housing.
Dr. Narendorf is one of the lead conveners for the Youth and Young Adult Homelessness Special Interest Group through the Society for Social Work and Research. In this role, she has supported convenings to bring policy makers, researchers and young adult experts together to identify research priorities relevant to policy makers to end youth homelessness. She is also Co-Director of the NYU Youth and Young Adult Mental Health Group and is actively engaged in the work of the lab to develop new interventions to support young adult mental health. She has been a fellow of the Society for Social Work and Research since 2019 and was recognized as an outstanding faculty member in 2018 by the women and gender resource center at the University of Houston. She is committed to sharing her scholarship both in peer reviewed publications and infographics and research briefs. In addition to disseminating her work through podcasts and infographics, she has authored approximately 80 peer-reviewed articles and is currently principal investigator on an R34 grant from the National Institute of Mental Health. She earned her PhD in Social Work from the Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, her MSW from the University of Houston, and her BA in Sociology and English from Rice University in Houston.