Sara Weir earned her PhD in Political Science at the University of Washington where she wrote her doctoral dissertation on the politics of chronic illness. In 1989 Professor Weir joined the Political Science department at Western Washington University and, after helping to shape the development of the department for more than a decade—as department chair from 2001-2014 and chair of Western’s Ralph Munro Institute for Civic Education from 2005-2015— Professor Weir is returning to teach and do research in her primary fields of study: health policy, the politics of serious illness, and palliative care.-WWU faculty profile