Sarah Fatemeh Porter, Ph.D. candidate at the University of Washington School of Social Work, was selected as one of 14 recipients of the prestigious 2025 Grand Challenges for Social Work Doctoral Award.
Founded in 2012 by the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, the Grand Challenges for Social Work is a groundbreaking initiative to identify and collectively take on our nation’s toughest social problems.
Sarah’s dissertation, “Reimagining Behavioral Crisis Systems Through Peer-led Workforce Development,” contributes to the Grand Challenge to Promote Smart Decarceration by critically examining the intersections of the prison and medical industrial complexes.
Her research highlights the disproportionate impact of carceral behavioral health crisis interventions on BIPOC and neurodivergent communities, and explores the transformative potential of peer support specialists in creating voluntary, community-based alternatives to police-led crisis response.
Sarah’s work in lived experience research is rooted in relationships with a diverse committee of academic and community mentors, including Jess Stohlmann-Rainey and Nze Okoronta. Her work exemplifies the School’s commitment to advancing equity, centering historically excluded lived experiences and promoting systems change through evidence-informed, community-engaged research.