Sarah Henao is a Program Scholar with the Litmus Program at the NYU Marron Institute of Urban Management. Prior to joining Litmus in 2019, she was a research assistant of the CAD/CAM/CAE Laboratory at Universidad EAFIT, where she implemented geometric simulations of computer tomography and modeled large data sets of lattice materials for Computer-Aided Design. 

With Litmus, she has worked as a data scientist, using machine learning and natural language processing for classifying unstructured criminal-justice administrative data , and conducting statistical analyses in experimental and non-experimental evaluations in policing and corrections. 

Sarah has been the principal data scientist on Litmus’ partnership with ReadWorks, an online literacy platform with over 17 million students, characterizing variation in reading comprehension. Her current focus is on the impact of Covid-19 on virtual education in the U.S., by identifying digital access and learning disparities.

Sarah’s main research interests are in how to use mathematical modeling, statistics, data analysis and data science to reduce  inequality and injustice in the public sector. Her passions include creating communicative data visualizations and data-driven innovations and working with interdisciplinary teams. She holds a B.S. in mathematical engineering from Universidad EAFIT (Colombia) and is currently a graduate student pursuing an M.S. in applied mathematics at the same university.