The Russell Sage Foundation is saddened to report the passing of eminent sociologist Sara McLanahan on December 31, 2021. Her research focused on family structure and its effects on social inequality and child wellbeing. She was dedicated to conducting research and training the next generation of scholars that would further social science research and inform public policies.

McLanahan taught at Princeton University for over 30 years until her retirement in 2021. She was the William S. Tod Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs and founding director of Princeton’s Bendheim-Thoman Center for Research on Child Wellbeing (CRCW) which fosters research, educates faculty and students, and influences policymakers and practitioners. She was also a founding principal investigator, along with her husband Irwin Garfinkel, of the Fragile Families and Child Wellbeing Study and editor in chief of Future of Children. McLanahan began her career as a postdoctoral fellow and Professor of Sociology at the University of Wisconsin Madison. She was president of the Population Association of America in 2004 and an elected member of the American Philosophical Society, the National Academy of Sciences, and the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. She received her B.A. from University of Houston and her M.A. and Ph.D. from University of Texas at Austin. 

McLanahan had a longstanding relationship with the Russell Sage Foundation. She was a member of its Board of Trustees from 2009 to 2019 and was chair of the board from 2014 to 2017. She was an RSF visiting scholar in 1988-1989, a member of the Biology and Social Science Working Group and the advisory panel for the Project on Social Inequality and Educational Disadvantage. McLanahan co-edited two RSF books Children of the Great Recession (with Irwin Garfinkel and Christopher Wimer) and Fathers Under Fire: The Revolution in Child Support Enforcement (with Irwin Garfinkel, Daniel Meyer, and Judith Seltzer). She also contributed to several RSF edited volumes: Making Americans Healthier: Social and Economic Policy as Health Policy, The Future of the Family, Imprisoning America: The Social Effects of Mass Incarceration among others. She received her first of many RSF research grants in 1992.

RSF President Sheldon Danziger noted that “One of Sara’s greatest contributions was as a mentor to dozens of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and early career scholars. She coauthored papers with them and helped them launch their own research careers. The Fragile Families and Child Well-Being Study, which Sara and Irv launched more than twenty years ago, is a landmark which has already generated numerous important research projects. Her career exemplified RSF’s mission of supporting social science that can improve social and living conditions in the United States.”

McLanahan was a greatly respected scholar and much of her research involved interdisciplinary collaboration. She published more than 125 articles in leading journals including American Journal of Public Health,American Journal of Sociology, Demography, Journal of Human Resources, and Journal of Marriage and Family. She also published seven books and edited volumes, including Growing Up a Single Parent (with Gary Sandefur), which won the Otis Dudley Duncan Award and the Goode Distinguished Award from the American Sociological Association. 

She is survived by her husband of 41 years, Irwin Garfinkel, and her children. The foundation extends its deepest sympathy to Sara’s family for their loss.