Sara received her Ed.D. in Human Development from Harvard; her M.A. in Experimental Psychology from Northeastern University; and her B.A. in Psychology from Reed College in Portland, Oregon.

Her dissertation research at Harvard University involved the bilingual language development - American Sign Language (ASL) and written English - of elementary school children.

Sara has conducted research on young women's attraction to and retention in science and math fields and on the relationship of family resources to language and cognitive development and fertility patterns across generations.

At present Sara works to National Technical Institute for the Deaf from the Department of Special Education (Deaf Education Graduate Program) at Hunter College in New York.

"In some ways the deaf community is like the gay community," says Schley, who is hearing. "Both are relatively small, they can be invisible, and outsiders have a lot of misconceptions." She says that sometimes, as when they ask her about her partner and children, her deaf students and colleagues seem more accepting of her homosexuality than straight people.