Jack Sandberg
Jack Sandberg
M.A., Ph.D.
Professor
Full-time Faculty
School: Milken Institute School of Public Health
Department: Global Health
Contact:
950 New Hampshire Avenue, Office: 412 - Floor 4
Washington DC 20052
John Sandberg is a Professor in the Department of Global. He holds a Ph.D. in Sociology and Population Studies from the University of Michigan. Dr. Sandberg's research spans demography, social network analysis, and quantitative and mixed-methods research design.
He directed the Niakhar Social Networks and Health Project in rural Senegal, an NIH-funded initiative integrating a population-wide social network census with a longstanding demographic surveillance system. The project has produced one of the most comprehensive datasets on social networks and health in sub-Saharan Africa, supporting research on a variety of topics, including ethnomedical beliefs, intimate partner violence, migration, fertility, and social isolation.
At GW, he has directed courses spanning the full quantitative methods sequence in global health — from introductory frameworks and study design through demographic methods, survival analysis, survey methodology, and mixed-methods. He has additionally taught both undergraduate population studies and doctoral-level population theory.
Bachelor of Arts, Sociology, Hunter College, City University of New York, summa cum laude, 1996
Master of Arts, Sociology, University of Michigan, 1998
Doctor of Philosophy, Sociology, Population Studies, University of Michigan, 2002
PubH 6410 Global Health Study Design and Ethics
PubH 6411 Global Health Data Collection for our Overseas Learning Collaborative students
PubH 6412 Global Health Data Analysis for our Overseas Learning Collaborative students
Sandberg, John, and Valerie Delaunay. Forthcoming, 2026. “Exploratory Sequential Mixed-Methods Design of the Niakhar Social Networks and Health Project Surveys.” Survey Practice, no. Special Issue: Mixed Methods Research: Deepening Our Knowledge Through Integrated Designs.
Deslauriers, Véronique, Simona Bignami, and John Sandberg. 2024. “A Typology of Social Network Interactions in Sub-Saharan Africa: Evidence from a Rural Population in Senegal.” Population Studies 78 (2): 251–68. https://doi.org/10.1080/00324728.2024.2345070.
Boujija, Yacine, Simona Bignami, and John Sandberg. 2024. “Rural–Urban Migration and Fertility Ideation in Senegal: Comparing Returned, Current, and Future Migrants to Dakar to Rural Nonmigrants.” Population and Development Review 50 (1): 177–210. https://doi.org/10.1111/padr.12609.
Boujija, Yacine, Simona Bignami, Valérie Delaunay, and John Sandberg. 2022. “Who Matters Most? Migrant Networks, Tie Strength, and First Rural–Urban Migration to Dakar.” Demography 59 (5): 1683–711. https://doi.org/10.1215/00703370-10191592.
Deslauriers, Véronique, Simona Bignami, Valérie Delaunay, John Sandberg, and Harriet Coleman. 2022. “Social Isolation in a Solidarity-Based Society: The Example of the Sereer Siin in Senegal.” Population 77 (4): 635–56.