About Rachel
Rachel was born in Watertown, but primarily grew up in Hartford, Connecticut. She earned an ScB in Applied Mathematics from Brown University. She began her post-college year as an English teacher in Tokyo. After Tokyo, she was a high school math teacher for a few years, and eventually switched into educational publishing focusing on writing and editing math curriculum.
At this time, the No Child Left Behind Act had just passed and states were scrambling to develop new standards. Thus, Rachel got a first hand look at how different states approached mathematics as well as how they used testing to assess their progress, which led to her interest in educational measurement. Eventually Rachel earned her PhD in Educational Measurement, Research, and Evaluation from Boston College.
After graduate school, Rachel worked for the non-profit, Concord Consortium, researching the use of science software in schools and led the assessment efforts at Mass Bay Community College as Director of Assessment. Eventually she landed at MIT’s Undergraduate Admissions Office where she has been the Director of Admissions Research since 2015. Her work has influenced the selection process and the testing policies for MIT. She also has the privilege of reading student applications and learning about the amazing students who come to MIT from all over the world, helping her better understand the unique circumstances all students face.
Rachel also returned to Watertown in 2015 with her son Adam. Rachel chose Watertown in part due its location, but mainly because it feels like a community where neighbors can get to know each other. It is also highly walkable and has people (and food!) from all over the world.
As Adam got older, Rachel was able to devote more time to the community. She joined the board of the Watertown SEPAC (Special Education Parents Advisory Council) as Director of Training in order to use her experiences with her son to help other parents navigating special education. Rachel then joined the Commission on Disability to further her advocacy for an accessible community. Rachel also helped lead the Watertown effort to pass the Fair Share amendment in 2022, to increase education and transportation funding. Last year, Rachel had the privilege of attending Watertown’s Citizen Police Academy and having the opportunity to truly understand what our police officers do. And as Adam learned to play the bass in orchestra, Rachel got excited to help with music in the schools, and volunteered for Friends of Watertown Music, which put on Music Fest in April.
In her free time, Rachel likes to watch reality TV including municipal meetings on WCA-TV. She is also excited to get back to traveling, having been to six continents (all except Antarctica), but not nearly enough countries yet.