Sam Hallman

Sam Hallman is the Curriculum Lead for the ASPIRE Program in the Youth Policy Lab at the University of Michigan. A proud first-generation college student, she received her joint Ph.D. in Social Work and Psychology in 2015 from the University of Michigan, where her dissertation focused on the cognitive and environment predictors of homework completion. She holds master's degrees in Higher Education Administration, Social Work (community organizing and policy evaluation), and Psychology (personality in social contexts), and graduated with a B.A. in Psychology with Honors from the University of Michigan in 2006. She has over two decades of experience in research and evaluation roles in the higher education and nonprofit sectors, and over 15 years of experience teaching in higher education. In addition to her Curriculum Lead role with YPL, she is an independent researcher and evaluator, and teaches quantitative research methods and statistics in the Department of Health and Human Services at University of Michigan-Dearborn, where she received the 2026 Lecturer Excellence in Inclusive Teaching award.