Emma B. Kassan (she/her/hers) is a policy analyst at RAND. Kassan is primarily interested in using research to improve outcomes for children and families. She has worked on projects that focused on children’s math skills, early childhood programs, standards alignment, program improvement, and children's learning through media. In the summer of 2023, Kassan worked at Mathematica on various projects for federal clients and foundations.
Kassan received her M.Ed. in child studies from Vanderbilt University’s Peabody College. While there, she worked at the Children’s Media Lab at Toronto Metropolitan University where she led a team on a project which focused on educational content and (un)healthy food in YouTube videos. Kassan was also a graduate student researcher at the Prenatal-to-3 Policy Impact Center where she compared early childhood programs across states and worked on a program evaluation.
Before pursuing her graduate degree, Kassan was a project manager and research assistant at the University of Delaware, working on a project funded by the National Science Foundation that involved assessing and improving first graders’ knowledge of fractions.
Kassan received her B.A. in psychology from Swarthmore College.
M.Ed. in child studies, Vanderbilt University; B.A. in psychology, Swarthmore College
