Biography
Kasey Meehan has extensive experience as a mixed-methods and policy researcher focused on postsecondary education. Meehan directs a range of multi-site, multi-method research projects focused on how statewide policies and programs are addressing equity, incentivizing change, and affecting student outcomes. Currently, Meehan is directing research on efforts to close racial equity gaps in higher education attainment and a continuation study examining how outcomes-based funding policies are addressing equity in six states. Meehan is also leading research on the Tennessee Promise as part of a four-state evaluation of college promise programs and co-directing a randomized controlled trial studying the impacts of completion coaching on Tennessee Promise students. In addition to her postsecondary work, Meehan has evaluated out-of-school programs and teacher evaluation systems.
Meehan has presented RFA’s research at the annual meetings of the State Higher Education Executive Officers, the Association for the Study of Higher Education, and the American Educational Research Association and has been an invited panelist at HCM Strategists’ Strategy Labs Peer Learning Opportunity, California Community Colleges’ Associate of Chief Business Officials Annual Conference, and Complete College America’s Annual Convening.
Before joining RFA, Meehan was a Project Director at SSRS, a survey research firm, where she led social science and opinion research projects for a variety of clients in non-profit, media, and academic sectors. Prior to SSRS she worked at the United Way of Greater Philadelphia and Southern New Jersey as a Program Coordinator overseeing a federal program that provides matched savings for individuals and families from lower-income households purchasing a first-time home or pursuing a higher education credential. Meehan holds a BA from the University of Pennsylvania and a MPA from the Fels Institute at the University of Pennsylvania, along with a Certificate in Politics.