Sarah Johnson
Education
University of Memphis
Bachelor in Business Economics
Master of City and Regional Planning
- Capstone: Addressing Neglect in the Private Rental Market
Work Experience
Eviction Lab Princeton, NJ
Research Specialist
- Will use R to research rental housing problems
Affordable Housing Institute Boston, MA
Communications Specialist
- Worked as a Teaching Assistant at Harvard GSD for Real Estate Development & Finance Fundamentals classes taught by AHI CEO David Smith.
- Communicate updates of AHI work on social media, including projects and fundraisers.
Shelby County Department of Housing Memphis, TN
Business Service Analyst
- Developed a website to provide frequently requested information regarding our Home Rehabilitation Program for contractors, residents, and internal use.
- Wrote sections of annual plans and grant applications detailing the needs of the local housing community, purposes of our organization, and services we provided with planned expansions.
- Created and described maps, graphs, and tables in static and interactive formats for reports, grants, and local officials. Utilized data from a variety of sources including the Census Bureau, CHAS, and assessor’s database, using R to manage datasets and convert information into visuals.
- Aided a local nonprofit in fulfilling HUD grant application requirements, resulting in an $8M+ award for the agency.
Intake/Outreach Coordinator
- Conducted intake for our home rehabilitation program and created a database to organize client and project information.
- Read and understood HUD regulations to ensure our program remained compliant with federal laws. Summarized these rules into clear terms to train my replacement upon promotion.
- Developed a needs-based ranking system to select applicants based on factors such as age, housing quality, and income, rather than the existing first-come first-serve method.
University of Memphis Memphis, TN
Graduate Assistant
- Researched St. Louis’ land banking practices and methods of revitalizing vacant land by the public, private, and nonprofit sectors, with a focus on public-private partnerships.
Shelby County Department of Housing Memphis, TN
Graduate Assistant
- Analyzed and described local housing needs and market conditions for the department’s Five-Year Comprehensive Plan.
Technical Skills
Programming languages/frameworks/software: R, RStudio, Quarto, HTML, CSS, SCSS, Bootstrap, JS, VueJS, SQL, Git, Github, VSCode, Netlify, DigitalOcean
R is my primary tool for data wrangling (including geospatial data), analysis, static and interactive graphing, web scraping, and accessing APIs. I utilize Quarto for publishing this information as websites, dashboards, and presentations.
R Packages
R packages are a collection of functions that help users automate specified tasks. I developed the following R packages which are freely available to download and use via GitHub:
tidychas: Access HUD’s CHAS dataset in a tidy format.memphis311: Access Memphis 311 data via API.mk8dx: Convert Mario Kart speedrunning data to tabular format.
Older Experience
International Paper Memphis, TN
Training Administrator
- Created training material for new hires and employees transferring positions within the company.
- Ensured material was understandable to someone unfamiliar with jargon, working with SMEs to verify accuracy while maintaining simplicity
Dragon Spirit Newspaper Collierville, TN
Editor, Photographer, Columnist
- Wrote and edited articles for high school newspaper, including a monthly column.
- Pursued interviews with students and local community figures; photographed events.
- Assigned articles to writers, ensured timely delivery, and proofread stories.
- Sold newspapers classroom-to-classroom and persuaded local businesses to purchase ad space.
- Attended journalism camp at the University of Alabama to learn best practices.