Sara Goldrick-Rab, professor of higher education policy and sociology and founder of the Hope Center for College, Community and Justice was recognized by Diverse: Issues in Higher Education in its eighth annual special report featuring 35 women who have changed higher education "by tackling some of higher education's toughest challenges, exhibiting extraordinary leadership skills and making a positive difference in their respective communities."

As highlighted in the report honoring Women's History Month, "Goldrick-Rab is the founder of the Hope Center for College, Community, and Justice. She is also a professor of higher education policy and sociology at Temple University. In over a dozen experimental, mixed-methods and longitudinal studies, Goldrick-Rab has analyzed the efficacy and distributional implications of financial aid policies, welfare, reform, transfer policies and a variety of interventions emphasizing increasing college attainment among marginalized populations. She is best known for her innovative research on food and housing insecurity in higher education, having directed the four largest national studies on the topic, and for her efforts on free public higher education. Goldrick-Rab's work has been published in numerous outlets, such as Educational Evaluation and Policy Analysis, Sociology of Education, Review of Educational Research and Teachers College Record. She also co-edited a Harvard Education Press volume, Reinventing Financial Aid: Charting a New Course to College Affordability. Her latest book, Paying the Price: College Costs, Financial Aid, and the Betrayal of the American Dream is an Amazon best-seller and has been featured on The Daily Show with Trevor Noah."