Sarah Parmenter, PhD, LMSW, (she/her), currently works for the Government Resource Center (GRC) at Ohio State, where she serves as a Reporting and Analytics Consultant. She specializes in mixed methods research and qualitative inquiry. She applies mixed methods and participatory approaches to examine how trauma-informed, evidence-based practices can be implemented across child welfare, healthcare, and behavioral health systems.
Dr. Parmenter has collaborated with state agencies on projects aimed at promoting child and family well-being for families involved with social service systems and promoting citizen involvement and transparency among child-serving agencies.
Dr. Parmenter is a social work scholar and licensed practitioner whose research advances the health, resilience, and sustainability of the child welfare and behavioral health workforce. Her work explores occupational stress, burnout, and secondary traumatic stress among child-serving professionals, with a particular focus on rural service contexts and system-involved youth.
Her scholarship also investigates the social determinants of health affecting children and families involved in public systems, and she is deeply engaged in efforts to define and promote well-being from the perspectives of caregivers, professionals, and youth themselves. Through cross-sector collaboration and qualitative inquiry, she translates research into actionable insights for policy, training, and service delivery.
Dr. Parmenter holds a B.S. in Human Development and Family Sciences, and both an MSW and Ph.D. in Social Work from The Ohio State University. She has presented her research at leading national conferences and published in top-tier peer-reviewed journals across public health, social work, and human services sectors.