Sarah Arvey, PhD
Associate Principal
Health Management Associates
Austin, TX
[javascript protected email address]
(512) 473-2626
Sarah Arvey is a trained medical anthropologist and qualitative researcher with expertise in the impact of social determinants, cultural norms, and health disparities on public health and healthcare delivery systems. She is skilled in designing and implementing qualitative data collection and analysis, including key informant interviews, focus groups, and surveys. Her goal is to derive recommendations with actionable steps from the findings, driving program implementation and improvement.
Throughout her years with HMA, Sarah has developed deep expertise in Medicaid managed care, leading and contributing to policy analysis, strategy development, and procurement support for Medicaid managed care organizations (MCOs). She oversees and manages Medicaid managed care procurement efforts across all stages, from pre-proposal strategy building, proposal development and submission, oral interviewing, and readiness review. She also leads teams of experts in conducting in-depth landscape and competitor analyses to determine strengths and differentiators for MCOs.
In addition to her work in Medicaid managed care, Sarah has managed a variety of projects at HMA including leading a comprehensive evaluation of state behavioral health performance measures and making recommendations for value-based purchasing models. For a national home-delivered meal service organization, Sarah assisted in developing and acting on new business strategies. With a national organization dedicated to sexual and reproductive health, Sarah led several statewide analyses of reproductive health policy and services, determining the scope of clients and need.
Prior to joining HMA, Sarah served as director of research and evaluation for the Livestrong Foundation, an international non-profit cancer survivorship advocacy organization. There, she supervised an annual $5 million extramural grant portfolio and was responsible for grants making, contracting, project management, evaluation, and reporting.
A lifelong learner and leader, Sarah earned her Ph.D. in anthropology and history from the University of Michigan, master’s degree in Latin American studies from the University of Arizona, and bachelor’s degree in English literature from the University of California-Berkeley. She was a post-doctoral fellow at the University of Texas School of Public Health under the National Institutes of Health National Cancer Institute Cancer Education & Career Development Training postdoctoral program. Her peer-reviewed findings have been published by the American Journal of Public Health, Health Education and Behavior, and Nature Reviews Clinical Oncology.
Sarah lives in Austin, Texas, with her two teenaged children. As often as they can, she and her family set their sights on the best bowl of ramen in town in the winter and new spring-fed pools in the summer.