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CC+S Leadership

Sara Hinkley

Sara Hinkley, PhD

Director of Policy and Research


Sara joined CC+S in February 2024 as co-Principal Investigator. At CC+S, she oversees the Center’s work on school facility finance, facilities master planning, policies that promote equitable access to school facilities, and efforts to evaluate the quality of California’s school facilities. She also leads the Center’s research on climate-resilient schools and led its now-completed work on education workforce housing.

Before coming to CC+S, Sara was a lead researcher at the UC Berkeley Labor Center and associate director of the UC Berkeley Institute for Research on Labor and Employment. She has an extensive background in academic and applied research on labor, workforce, and economic development policy, the education workforce, low-wage workers, technology and government, and public finance.

Sara was a school board member in Albany Unified School District from 2018-2022 and served as Board President from 2020-2022. She has taught undergraduate and graduate courses at the Department of City and Regional Planning at UC Berkeley. 

Sara holds a Ph.D. in City and Regional Planning from the University of California, Berkeley and a master’s degree in regional planning from the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill.

Contact: hinkley@berkeley.edu

Publications + Articles

What Are California’s School Districts Actually Planning For? A Statewide Look at Facilities Master Plans
Sara Hinkley
July 14, 2026
Housing California Educators: Wrapping Up Four Years of Research and Partnership
Sara Hinkley
July 3, 2026
New Report: California’s School Facilities in a Changing Climate
Sara Hinkley
May 7, 2026
California’s School Facilities in a Changing Climate: Funding, Equity, and Resilience
Sara Hinkley and Jeff Vincent
May 7, 2026
Housing California Educators: Development Strategies and Guidance
Sara Hinkley
March 31, 2026
How California’s County Offices of Education Can Advance Workforce Housing for Educators
Sara Hinkley
September 1, 2025

News Coverage

UPDATE: Berkeley Unified staff struggles through brutal yearly layoff process (EdSource)
Sara Hinkley
May 15, 2026
Brutal yearly layoff cycle in Berkeley schools means limbo for workers (Berkeleyside)
Vanessa Arredondo
May 14, 2026
Teachers struggle to afford housing. What are districts doing about it?
Sara Hinkley
February 27, 2026
Will Newsom quickly settle a school facilities lawsuit as Schwarzenegger did? (EdSource)
Sara Hinkley
January 12, 2026
Upgrading facilities can make schools safer and more sustainable, panel says (EdSource)
Sara Hinkley
October 9, 2024
CC+S Research on State Funding Inequity Cited in EdSource Coverage of Possible State Facility Bond
Sara Hinkley
June 20, 2024

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  • About CC+S
    • Overview
    • Awards
    • People
    • PLUS Research Fellows
  • Major Initiatives
    • Equitable School Facilities
    • Education Workforce Housing
    • Y-PLAN (Youth, Plan, Learn, Act Now)
    • Y-HEAR-US
  • In the News
  • Blog
  • Publications
  • Contact Us
  • Data Sharing
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