Vera Institute of Justice

Sarah Zarba was a program analyst II with Vera’s Center on Youth Justice (CYJ). She also worked on Vera’s Initiative to End Girls’ Incarceration in New York City, a federally funded initiative in which Vera is partnering with New York City to end girls’ incarceration locally and to create a model for ending the incarceration of girls around the country. As part of this work, Sarah managed the project’s youth engagement component, ensuring that the lived experiences of directly impacted girls and LGBT/ gender non-conforming (GNC) youth are included in system reform efforts. In previous roles, Sarah also worked on a project that supports the Virginia Department of Juvenile Justice (DJJ) to improve their policies and programming, in an effort to strengthen family relationships and support youth involved in the system. Sarah earned her Bachelor’s degree from John Jay College of Criminal Justice and holds a Master’s in Social Work from Columbia University.