RIPL

Who We Are

We are problem-solvers with a measurable track record of excellence in public policy solutions.

We use advanced data analytics, rigorous research, and strong, lasting collaborations with government and private-sector partners to design human-centered, meaningful, and measurable policy solutions which improve equity and economic opportunity for all American families.

We draw from a network of expert researchers at universities across the country to form partnerships and deliver expertise and proven results.

RIPL Team

We hold ourselves and each other accountable for demonstrating the Leadership Attributes through our actions every day. Our Leadership Attributes describe how RIPL does business, how leaders lead, and how we keep our partners at the center of our decisions. Our unique culture, described by our Leadership Attributes, guides us in our pursuit of excellence.

Read about our Leadership Attributes HERE.

Mintaka Angell

Chief Operating Officer

Susan Athey

Research Faculty Affiliate

Sarah Beardsley

Research Coordination Officer

Markisha Berrien-Fitzsimmons

Data Engineer

Jade Borgeson

Director of Policy and Partnerships

Eric Chyn

Board Member and Research Faculty Affiliate

Dave Costantino

Principal Software Engineer

Nile Dixon

Senior Software Engineer

Maggie Finney

Solutions Engagements Manager

Richard Gilbert

Board Member and Research Faculty Affiliate

Justine Hastings

Founding Board Member and Research Faculty Affiliate

Kyle Hancock

Senior Director of Technology

Ethan Ho

Senior Software Engineer

Mark Howison

Board Member

Malavika Kumaran

Senior Product Manager

Scott Jensen

CEO

Suzan LeVine

Board Member

Joe Long

Data Scientist

Abby McQuade

Director of Solutions and Consulting

Akiva Yonah Meiselman

Economist

Jud Neer

Chief Technology Officer

Emilie Rafal

Senior Solutions Fellow

John Ratliff

Senior Fellow

Amelia Roberts

Director of Product Innovation

Kelvin Sanchez

Senior Frontend Developer

Karen Shen

Research Faculty Affiliate

Kaitlin Sweetin

Deputy Policy Director

Kate Ulansky-Aharon

Senior Product Manager

Jared Veltsos

Software Engineer

Sarah White

Vice President of Product

Seth Zimmerman

Research Faculty Affiliate

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Find out about Careers at Research Improving People’s Lives HERE.

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Mintaka Angell

Mintaka Angell is the Chief Operating Officer of RIPL, and is a founding member of the RIPL leadership team. Previously, she has served as a Research Associate at the Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs at Brown University. Mintaka holds a BA in History and an MPA from Brown University, focusing on Data-Driven Policy. Mintaka lives in Brooklyn, New York, where she enjoys writing horror novellas, amateur kickboxing, and rigorously sampling every ice cream shop in the city.

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Susan Athey

Board Member and Research Faculty Affiliate

Dr. Athey is the Economics of Technology Professor at Stanford Graduate School of Business, as well as a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research is primarily in industrial organization, marketplace design, and applied econometrics. She has conducted path-breaking research on causal machine learning methods, focusing on estimating heterogeneous effects of treatments, designing optimal personalized treatment assignment policies, and developing methods for analyzing longitudinal data. 

As one of the first “tech economists,” she served as consulting chief economist for Microsoft Corporation for six years, and now serves on the boards of several technology companies as well as non-profit Innovations for Poverty Action. She is the director of the Shared Prosperity and Innovation Initiative at Stanford GSB, which focuses on using technology and practices such as machine learning and A/B testing for social impact. She is also associate director of the Stanford Institute for Human Centered Artificial Intelligence.

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Sara Beardsley

Sarah Beardsley is the Research Coordination Officer. Prior to joining RIPL, she was the Chief of Staff for the Maryland Department of Labor where she oversaw the Department’s operations, policy, communications, and special projects.  She previously served in Governor Hogan’s Opioid Operational Command Center and has multiple years of experience in state and local government.  Sarah lives in Baltimore County, Maryland and when she is not working to improve people’s lives, she likes to try not to kill house plants and pretend that she likes hiking.

Markisha Berrien-Fitzsimons

Markisha Berrien-Fitzsimons is a Data Engineer at RIPL. Prior to joining RIPL, she led the data analytics department at KIPP Chicago as the Managing Director of Data Science and Analytics. Markisha holds a BA in East Asian Languages and Civilizations and an MPP in Public Policy from the University of Chicago with extensive training in analytics. Markisha lives in Chicago, IL and when she is not working to improve people’s lives, she enjoys creating data visualizations, tending to her many houseplants and attending art classes.

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Jade Borgeson

Jade Borgeson is the Director of Policy and Partnerships for RIPL, where she spearheads partnership development with state and federal leaders, builds relationships with key stakeholders to ensure effective and successful project implementation, and leads a team of policy experts that ensure RIPL’s solutions are implemented for sustainable and meaningful impact. Prior to joining RIPL, Jade was the Chief of Staff of the Rhode Island Department of Administration. She previously served as a Policy Advisor to Governor Gina M Raimondo, Chief of Staff of the Rhode Island Department of Revenue, and the Entrepreneurial Lead on a capacity-building project for US-based social service agencies sponsored by the National Science Foundation’s Innovation-Corps program.

 Jade holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration with a concentration in data science from Brown University and a Bachelor’s Degree in Social Research and Public Policy from New York University: Abu Dhabi. She currently resides in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Outside of work, Jade enjoys volunteering with her family and friends, catching-up on the latest critically acclaimed international films, and experimenting with recipes in her beloved instapot. 

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Eric Chyn

Board Member and Research Faculty Affiliate

Dr. Chyn is an Assistant Professor of Economics in the Department of Economics at Dartmouth, and a Faculty Research Fellow at the National Bureau of Economic Research. He is a member of the Human Capital and Economic Opportunity (HCEO) Global Working Group, a Faculty Affiliate at the Wilson Sheehan Lab for Economic Opportunity at the University of Notre Dame, and a Faculty Affiliate at the Economic Self-Sufficiency Policy Research Institute. He studies topics in the fields of labor, urban, and public economics. His recent research uses quasi-experimental methods to study the impact of government programs on outcomes of children.

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Dave Costantino

Dave is a Principal Software Engineer on the Technology team. Prior to joining RIPL, he was a Staff Engineer at Zumper, developing software solutions for the real estate industry. Prior to that, Dave was Chief Architect at Datarista, where he built a cloud-based data integration and delivery platform. He holds a BS in Computer Science from Worcester Polytechnic Institute. Dave lives in Cranston, RI, and when he is not working to improve people’s lives, he enjoys reading, watching documentaries, retrocomputing, and exploring restaurants in the Providence area.

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Nile Dixon

Nile Dixon is a Software Engineer on the Engineering Team where he supports the development of many of RIPL’s web apps and chatbots. Prior to joining RIPL he was a Data Analyst for QuestBridge. Nile holds a Bachelors of Sociology from University of Houston – Downtown with extensive training in data science and analytics. Nile lives in Houston, TX and when he is not working to improve people’s lives he is baking vegan donuts and playing board games.

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Maggie Finney

Maggie Finney is the Consulting Engagements Manager on the Consulting Team where she leads the surfacing of and proposal development for funding opportunities; provides project management and support to various consulting engagements; and assists in product and policy development. Prior to joining RIPL, she worked as a Consultant for Public Consulting Group where she provided project management and policy expertise to Human Services and Labor agencies in several states; she also supported the operations of $18M in US Department of Labor (USDOL) grants. Prior to that, Maggie held internships in Massachusetts state government at the Executive Office for Administration and Finance and the Health Connector, the Commonwealth’s health exchange. Maggie holds a BA in Public Policy from Duke University with extensive training in public finance and policy implementation. Maggie lives in Raleigh, NC and when she is not working to improve people’s lives she likes to explore new taco spots, get lost in a good read, and spend time outdoors. 

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Richard Gilbert

Board Member and Research Faculty Affiliate

Dr. Gilbert is currently Professor Emeritus of Economics at UC Berkeley. He has previously served as Chair of Berkeley’s Economics Department from 2002-2005. Dr. Gilbert was previously the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Economics with the U.S. Justice Department, and was Director of the University of California Energy Institute. He was a Fulbright Scholar in 1989 and was a visiting fellow at Churchill College, University of Cambridge in 1979 and 2006.  Dr.  Gilbert was educated at Stanford University, where he received his Ph.D. in Economics in 1976, the same year he joined UC Berkeley as an assistant professor. He became a full professor in 1983. His research is in industrial organization and regulation with an emphasis on competition policy, innovation and intellectual property.

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Justine Hastings

Founding Board Member and Research Faculty Affiliate

Dr. Hastings is the Founding Director of RIPL and currently serves as the RIPL Board Chair. She is an Affiliate Professor of Economics at the University of Washington, the Chief of Human-Centered Science at Amazon, and a Faculty Research Associate with the National Bureau of Economic Research. Her research expertise spans Industrial Organization, Public Economics, and Behavioral Economics. She has conducted academic research on topics such as market structure and competition, environment and energy regulation, advertising and consumer protection, consumer financial markets, health care, social safety-net programs, and markets for higher education. Her research employs diverse empirical techniques including field experiments, survey analysis, machine learning, predictive analytics, analysis of large administrative datasets, and structural demand and supply estimation. Her research was cited in the 2017 Nobel Prize scientific background materials implications, and has been used to shape public policy improvements around the world, including North Carolina, Rhode Island, Chile, and Mexico. She has also served as an expert advisor on the Academic Research Council to the United States Consumer Financial Protection Bureau.

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Kyle Hancock

Kyle Hancock is the Director of Technical Products at RIPL, where he manages and develops technology solutions for data-driven policy. Prior to joining RIPL, he spent the past decade building and managing technology teams and strategy for public school systems. He was also a founding member, president and board member of the New Hampshire CTO Council, an organization he helped lead to represent over 80% of New Hampshire students in just a few years. Kyle holds an MS in Information Systems from the University of Phoenix, as well as several industry technology certifications. Kyle lives in Concord, NH. When he is not working to improve people’s lives, he can be found spending time with his family and two dogs, gardening or doing projects around the house.

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Ethan Ho

Ethan Ho is a Software Engineer on the Technology team. Prior to joining RIPL, he wrote and optimized scientific code at the Texas Advanced Computing Center at UT Austin. Prior to that, he worked in a biochemistry lab at Colorado State University. Ethan holds a Bachelor’s in Biochemistry from Reed College and is pursuing a Master’s in Computer Science at the University of Chicago. He has extensive training in high performance computing (HPC), scientific computing, and cloud ETL pipelines. Ethan lives in Chicago and when is not working to improve people’s lives he enjoys playing soccer, running, algorithmic trading, and making origami.

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Malavika Kumaran

Malavika is a Senior Product Manager at RIPL where she leads digital solutions for career and workforce development. Prior to joining RIPL she was Director of Research & Policy at Startup Genome, enabling data-driven policy decisions for global startup ecosystems. Prior to that she led the research team at MaRS Discovery District, in the areas of inclusive innovation and the future of work. 

Malavika holds an Honours B.Sc in Economics from the University of Toronto with extensive training in analytics, product management, and data governance. Malavika lives in Manhattan, and when she is not working to improve people’s lives she likes to eat her way through NYC, chase her dog around, and dabble in improv.

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Scott Jensen

Scott Jensen is the Chief Executive Officer and Vice President of External Affairs of RIPL. Prior to joining RIPL, Scott was appointed by Governor Gina M. Raimondo as the Director of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training from 2015 to 2021. Scott has a distinguished history of leading innovation with data and technology to improve lives wherever he serves. He designed, launched and implemented one of the nation’s most innovative workforce development programs, Real Jobs RI, and its post-pandemic counterpart, Back to Work RI. 

 

Prior to his tenure in Rhode Island, Scott was the Deputy Secretary of Labor for Maryland, and has served as an elected City Council Member. 

 

Scott received a BA in History from Illinois State University, an MA in Liberal Education from St. John’s College in Annapolis, MD, and was a Ph.D. candidate in philosophy at the Graduate Faculty of the New School for Social Research in New York, NY. Before entering public service, Scott also taught philosophy to undergraduate students at Salisbury State University in Maryland. Scott lives with his family in Maryland, where he enjoys Husserlian Phenomenology and barefoot waterskiing.

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Suzan Levine

Board Member

Ambassador Suzi LeVine’s non-linear career and path to the workforce development world features experiences and expertise from the public, private, and non-profit sectors with a consistent North Star of impact. She most recently served as Acting Assistant Secretary for the Employment and Training Administration at the United States Department of Labor with a portfolio including unemployment insurance, apprenticeship, Job Corps, workforce development, foreign labor certification and more. She led the 1,000-person organization through the administration transition, managed an $11 billion budget, grew the organization by over 10% in 6 months, oversaw the issuance of more than $8 billion in workforce system grants, helped secure $2 billion in American Rescue Plan funding for the Unemployment Insurance System and revived the Advisory Committee on Apprenticeship.

This follows public sector positions as the United States Ambassador to Switzerland and Liechtenstein and the Commissioner for the Washington State Employment Security Department. During her time as Ambassador, highlights included increasing foreign direct investment by $3 billion and growing the Swiss model of apprenticeship in the United States. Among her many accomplishments as Commissioner, she ran the 2,500-person agency, overseeing the on-time and on-budget launch of the nation’s first built-from-scratch Paid Family and Medical Leave program, which delivered half a billion dollars to over 100,000 people in its first year. In the face of the pandemic, her agency hired 1,000 people in six months and provided over a million people with over $14 billion in unemployment benefits in only ten months.

Her private and non-profit sector roles included Windows 95 Product Manager and Director of Communications for Education at Microsoft and Vice President for Sales and Marketing in Luxury Travel at Expedia, Inc. Twice during her career, she was a stay-at-home mom of two kids, during which time she co-founded two non-profit organizations. In addition to the RIPL board, Suzi serves on the non-profit boards of CareerWise USA and the Thomas Jefferson Foundation, and on the corporate board for Publicis Groupe. She graduated from Brown University with a Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering with aerospace applications, and a Bachelor of Arts in English.

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Joe Long

Joe Long is a Data Scientist at RIPL. Prior to joining RIPL, he completed a Ph.D. in Economics at Northwestern University. Prior to that, he worked at the Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) as a Research Analyst. Currently, Joe lives in St. Louis, and when he is not working to improve people’s lives he likes to paint, play guitar, and cook.

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Abby McQuade

Abby McQuade is the Director of Consultancies at RIPL, where she contributes to policy and product development and leads the RIPL team in partnering with external organizations to further the use of research and data in public policymaking. Prior to joining RIPL, she was Senior Advisor to the Director and Chief Innovation Officer of the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training. While at RIDLT, Abby led the agency’s push to modernize its unemployment insurance and workforce development applications as part of the response to COVID-19. She also developed the administrative structure used to support the sector-based, demand-driven workforce development programs Real Jobs RI and Back to Work RI. Prior to RIDLT, she was a member of the RI Office of Management and Budget leadership team and was a senior member of the House Fiscal Advisory Staff. Abby holds a BA and an MA from Boston University. She lives in Rhode Island and when she’s not working to improve people’s lives, she can be found curled up on the couch, reading, with her cat, and/or enjoying RI’s food culture.

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Akiva Yonah Meiselman

Dr. Akiva Yonah Meiselman is an Economist on our Research Team. Prior to joining RIPL, he completed a Ph.D. in Economics at the University of Texas at Austin, where his research was focused on education policy and applied econometrics. Previously, Yonah worked as the Chief Data Officer at Brooke Charter Schools in Boston, MA, and as a Research Analyst at The Brattle Group in Cambridge, MA. Yonah lives in Washington, DC, and he likes to spend his free time cooking, cycling, and dancing.

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Jud Neer

Jud is the Chief Technology Officer at RIPL, where he champions the innovative solutions built by the product and engineering teams. Prior to joining RIPL, he led the state and local government practice for AWS Professional Services and brings over 20 years of experience delivering software solutions for the public sector. Jud lives in San Diego, California and when he’s not improving people’s lives, he likes to write open-source software, play bass guitar, and run, though not all at the same time.

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Emilie Rafal

Emilie Rafal is a Senior Consulting Fellow on our Consulting Team, where she leads projects to further the use of data to deliver value across policy areas, advances RIPL’s development of public policy expertise, and contributes to product development. 

Prior to joining RIPL she was the Director of Programs at Credential Engine where she led the organization’s state and regional partnerships with the goal of improving credential transparency across governments. Before her time at Credential Engine, Emilie worked at Higher Achievement and The Corps Network where she managed data collection and use to improve the impact of these non-profits. Emilie holds a BA from the College of William and Mary and an MPP from George Washington University’s Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration with extensive training in education policy and program evaluation. 

Emilie is a recent transplant to San Antonio, Texas and when she is not working to improve people’s lives she spends time exploring the outdoors with her wife and two dogs, running, or reading.

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John Ratliff

John Ratliff is a strategist and implementation advisor focused on building prosperity and advising communities in times of crisis and opportunity. He works closely with community leaders to develop visions for a more innovative, resilient, and equitable future, including efforts to: recover from the COVID-19 pandemic; the Great Recession; rebuild Lower Manhattan after 9/11; reunify Berlin; and rebuild after Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, Irene, Isabel, Floyd, and Hugo. He assists in the building of new tools, partnerships, and ways of doing business to realize these visions. He is an expert on the interplay of policies across multiple levels of authority and effective execution in systems of networked governance.

He was appointed by President Obama as Counselor to Secretary Penny Pritzker and Director of Policy and Strategic Planning at the U.S. Department of Commerce, where he served for three years. He also served as Director of Policy for Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley for seven years and as a legislative counsel in the U.S. House of Representatives assigned to the Committees on Transportation and Infrastructure, Small Business, and Education and the Workforce. John was also director of multiple divisions of the National Governors Association’s Center for Best Practices where he advised governors and other state leaders on policies related to technology, the environment, energy, transportation, housing, and homeland security.

John holds a J.D. from Harvard Law School and an M.P. in urban and environmental planning and a B.A. from the University of Virginia. He is based in Washington, DC, and Annapolis, Maryland, where he enjoys kayaking, playing acoustic guitar, and travel writing.

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Amelia Roberts

Amelia Roberts is the Deputy Director of Product Innovation at RIPL, where she leads implementing RIPL data-driven solutions around workforce development in states across the country. Prior to joining RIPL, Amelia was the Director of Data and Performance at the Rhode Island Department of Labor and Training, where she led a team of analysts, spearheaded special technology initiatives to accelerate recovery from COVID-19, and managed IT system deployments. Prior to that, Amelia was the Data and Performance Manager for the Governor’s Workforce Board of Rhode Island, performing analyses to promote data-driven policy and investment decisions. Amelia holds an M.A.. in Business Analytics from Merrimack College, with extensive training in developing BI visuals and dashboards. Amelia lives in Rhode Island. When she is not working to improve people’s lives, she enjoys playing co-ed soccer and spending time with her husband and two kids.

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Kelvin Sanchez

Kelvin Sanchez is a Senior Frontend Developer on the Technology team at RIPL. He has extensive experience and a proven track record of developing innovative and engaging user interfaces. Prior to joining RIPL, he served as a Frontend Developer on the Saas team at Xepelin, and prior to that, as a Fullstack Developer at Alacartadigital. 

Kelvin lives in Spring, Texas, and when he is not working to improve people’s lives, he can be found strumming his guitar, spending quality time with his family, or exploring new hobbies.  

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Karen Shen

Karen Shen is a Research Faculty Affiliate at RIPL.  Prior to joining RIPL, she completed a Ph.D. in Economics at Harvard University, with a focus on public and health economics. Before graduate school, she worked as a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Karen lives in Baltimore, Maryland. When she is not working to improve people’s lives she likes to camp, read, and discuss reality TV..

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Kaitlin Sweetin

Kaitlin Sweetin is a Deputy Policy Director on the RIPL Policy Team where she fosters partnership development and stakeholder engagement to implement data driven solutions. Prior to joining RIPL, she served as Deputy Legislative Officer to Maryland Governor Larry Hogan where she advanced legislation on matters involving the Departments of State Assessments and Taxation, Disabilities, Human Services, Labor, Lottery and Gaming. Prior to that she served as Director of Strategic Partnerships at the Maryland Department of Labor where she engaged Maryland’s business communities and workforce development stakeholders to build a qualified workforce. 

Kaitlin holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science and Government from Lycoming College with extensive training in state government operations and policy implementation. Kaitlin lives in Annapolis, Maryland and when she is not working to improve people’s lives, she likes to spend time with her husband Colin and their golden retriever Bruce, attend Barre classes and continue the search for the best crab dip in Maryland.

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Kate Ulansky-Aharon

Kate is a Senior Product Manager at RIPL. Before joining RIPL, Kate worked for over a decade in Israeli start-ups, most recently in the field of cybersecurity where she contributed to and built products in threat prevention, vulnerability management, and SaaS systems. Kate has a B.A. in Religious Studies from the University of Virginia and an M.A. in history from Tel Aviv University as well as additional professional training in agile project management and data analytics. Outside of work, Kate’s favorite things to do include reading, walking (and the occasional very flat hike), and perusing the abundance of secondhand clothes, books, and furniture stores of the Bay Area.  

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Jared Veltsos

Jared Veltsos is a Software Engineer on the Technology team where he supports the development of RIPL’s web-based apps. Prior to joining RIPL he was a Software Engineer developing both open source and proprietary software products. Jared lives in Maui, HI and when he is not working to improve people’s lives he is surfing and spending time with his family.

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Sarah White

Sarah White is the Director of Product Innovation, where she leads developing and scaling RIPL’s data-driven digital services in workforce development, post-secondary education and training pathways, and public benefits programs. Prior to joining RIPL, Sarah coached public and private-sector organizations to adopt more creative and innovative behaviors at IDEO, a global design company. Prior to that, Sarah led state-level pilots exploring interventions for delivering more human-centered benefits administration at Code for America. Sarah holds an MA from the Middlebury Institute for International Studies at Monterey, and a BA from Lake Forest College. She lives in Minneapolis, where in her free time she enjoys running or cross-country skiing the city lakes. 

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Seth Zimmerman

Research Faculty Member

Dr. Zimmerman is currently an Associate Professor of Economics at Yale University and a Faculty Research Fellow at National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). His research is focused on labor economics, public finance, and household finance, with a focus on the economics of education. Recent work asks how access to selective higher education affects upward mobility into top jobs and top incomes, how school districts can design transparent and equitable public school choice systems, and how public investment in education affects student outcomes. Partnerships with local and national governments to design, implement, and evaluate public policies are central to Dr. Zimmerman’s research.

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