Sara McTarnaghan is a research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where her research focuses on community development initiatives, affordable housing policy, and nonprofit capacity building. She has supported several data analysis and evaluation projects for federally funded initiatives, including Promise Neighborhoods; Strong Cities, Strong Communities; and the US Department of Education's Investing in Innovation Fund. Currently, she is conducting a literature review of housing policy and practice in Latin America for Habitat for Humanity International and is working on a project with the World Bank to build performance management and evaluation capacity among DC-area nonprofits.

Before joining Urban, McTarnaghan worked at the nonprofit Techo in Santiago, Chile, on regional housing and community development programs. She holds a BA from the George Washington University and an MS in community and regional planning and an MA in Latin American studies from the University of Texas at Austin.