Sharon Sassler is an Associate Professor in the Department of Policy Analysis and Management at Cornell University. She received her Ph.D. from Brown University in 1995. A social demographer, her research examines factors shaping the activities of young adults and their life course transitions into school and work, relationships, and parenthood, and how these have changed over the past century. Some of her current research explores the tempo of relationship progression, the processes underlying entrance into cohabiting unions and how these differ by social class, and the impact of becoming a single mother on subsequent health and child outcomes.