The Centre on Migration, Policy and Society (COMPAS)

Dr Sarah Spencer CBE is a Senior Fellow and former Deputy Director at COMPAS, primarily working on projects in the Urban Change and Settlement and Welfare clusters. Her particular interests are in migrant integration, human rights and equality, and in the policy making process. She is the author of a critical analysis of UK migration and integration policies, The Migration Debate (Policy Press 2011), and is currently an Open Society Fellow (2012-2013) exploring issues relating to irregular migrants in Europe. Sarah was awarded her doctorate at Erasmus University Rotterdam, has an MPhil from University College London and took her first degree at the University of Nottingham. She is a Visiting Professor at the Human Rights Centre, University of Essex; was recently a member of the Royal Society working group, People and the Planet; and is an advisor to an American philanthropic foundation, Atlantic Philanthropies, in Dublin.

Sarah is actively engaged in public and civil society activities related to her interests. She was Chair of the Equality and Diversity Forum, the network of equality and human rights organisations in Britain, from 2002-2012; was a Commissioner and Deputy Chair of the Commission for Racial Equality, where she oversaw its work in the public sector; and is a former Director of Liberty (the National Council for Civil Liberties). She has been a member of government task forces on Gypsies and Travellers; the Human Rights Act and the Equality and Human Rights Commission; and of advisory committees on equality law. She has twice been seconded into the Cabinet Office to contribute to projects on migration issues. She is currently a Trustee of the National Flood Forum and on the advisory board of the British Institute of Human Rights. In 2007, Sarah was awarded a CBE for services to equal opportunities and human rights.