Jonathon E. Sawyer earned a Ph.D. from the University of Colorado Boulder. His expertise sits at the intersection of education policy, law and religion. Sawyer’s research spans the educational implications of the First Amendment religion clauses, the expansion of U.S. voucher policies, non-discrimination laws, and impacts on LGBTQ students. He's also conducted research on public school finance and accountability systems.

Sawyer’s dissertation study titled, “Negotiating Faith: Catholic Educators on LGBTQ+ Personhood” builds bridges of understanding across the divides that can separate LGBTQ youth and people in theologically conservative faith communities. He interviewed Catholic educators who support their LGBTQ students, describing how they draw on ethics of care rather than religious doctrines that demand the invisibility of LGBTQ identity. His work deepens understandings of Christian education and suggests ways to reduce exclusion and erasure of LGBTQ people in religious communities. His study offers hope and possibility as our country grapples with ideological divisions, autocratic forms of Christian Nationalism, and taxpayer subsidies for religious schools.

At the university level, Sawyer has taught undergraduate courses on the social foundations and history of U.S. education. He engages in public scholarship on Christian Nationalism in U.S. politics and he's published in academic and popular presses. Since 2022, Dr. Sawyer has worked closely with the National Education Policy Center (NEPC). With NEPC, he led research in Michigan on the Price of Opportunity Project (POP) and contributed to a study on California's Local Control Funding Formula (LCFF).