Sarah E. Zemore, PhD
Senior Scientist
- szemore@arg.org 510-898-5852
- External Bios: View and Download CV (PDF)
EDUCATION
Sarah Zemore received her BA from Pomona College and her PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst, under Drs. Susan Fiske and Linda Isbell. She received postdoctoral training in alcohol studies at ARG/UC Berkeley, where Dr. Lee Ann Kaskutas was her mentor.RESEARCH FOCUS
Dr. Zemore has wide-ranging interests in alcohol and drugs, with particular focus on social and psychological aspects of treatment-seeking and recovery. For example, she has an extensive record of research on mutual-help groups for addiction, and has led multiple NIAAA-funded studies collecting national data to examine the nature, benefits, and mechanisms of action of 12-step groups and secular alternatives. Dr. Zemore was also recently Multiple Principal Investigator (with Dr. Paul Gilbert) of a large, NIAAA-funded survey study seeking to describe and understand resolution of problem drinking across three service use pathways (i.e., among individuals in treated, assisted, and independent recovery). Alongside these interests, Dr. Zemore is interested in how and why demographic groups differ on substance use patterns, substance use disorder prevalence, and service utilization, and she has led several studies on these topics. Dr. Zemore currently serves on the Editorial Board of NIAAA’s flagship journal, Alcohol Research: Current Reviews. She has also served on the Editorial Board of the Journal of Studies on Alcohol and Drugs and as member and Chair of NIAAA’s Initial Review Group committee on Epidemiology, Prevention, and Behavior Research. She previously served as Associate Director of ARG’s NIAAA-funded National Alcohol Research Center and Director of ARG’s T32 training program in alcohol epidemiology, roles that she relinquished to focus on her own research. Dr. Zemore’s career in the substance use field spans 23 years, and her work and opinions are frequently reported in the press (e.g., in the New York Times and Vox).
IN THE NEWS
See All NewsIn 2023, Sarah E. Zemore, ARG senior scientist, co-authored the study Understanding the Shared Meaning of Recovery from Substance Use Disorders: New Findings from the What is Recovery Project. This…Learn more
Large disparities in who attends AA meetings, new study finds. Learn more
