Sarah Tracy

Dr. Sarah J. Tracy (Ph.D., University of Colorado) is Professor and former Director of The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication at Arizona State University. Dr. Tracy researches and teaches in the areas of organizational communication and qualitative methodology with foci on emotional labor, compassion, bullying, and organizational flourishing. She developed phronetic iterative qualitative data analysis (PIQDA) and the eight big tent criteria for high quality qualitative research. Her work appears in outlets such as Communication Monographs, Communication Theory, Management Communication Quarterly, Human Communication Research, Qualitative Inquiry, Health Communication, Journal of Management Studies, and Journal of Applied Communication Research. 

She is Co-Founder of The Transformation Project and former Director of the school (2021-2025). Her leadership focuses on inclusive excellence, entrepreneurial innovation, use-inspired research, and flourishing for school members. Sarah engages un public outreach on topics such as organizational flourishing, burnout, retirement, toxic positivity, and work-life balance.

Awards and Recognition Include:

• Top 2% of scientists in the world across all fields (Stanford University’s Scientist Career Rankings) (link)
• Fellow of the International Communication Association for distinguished career contributions to the broad field of communication (link)
• Distinguished Scholar of The National Communication Association for career scholarly achievement in the field of human communication. (link)
• Distinguished Scholar Award for career scholarly achievement in communication studies  (Western States Communication Association) (link)
• Outstanding Mentoring Award for career contributions to student mentoring (National Communication Association, Organizational Communication Division)
• Distinguished Teaching Award for career achievement in teaching communication studies (Western States Communication Association) (link)
• Jablin Award for outstanding career contributions in organizational communication (Organizational Communication Division, International Communication Association) 
• Legacy Award honoring career achievement in high-quality ethnographic and qualitative research (Ethnography Division, National Communication Association) (link)
• Charles H. Woolbert Research Award honoring her journal article (Crystallized Self) that has stood the test of time and become a stimulus for new conceptualizations of communication phenomena (National Communication Association) (link) 
• Jeanne Lind Herberger Endowed Professorship recognizing excellence in scholarship (The Hugh Downs School of Human Communication, ASU) (link)
• Individual paper, article, and book awards noted on CV

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