Rachel Burns joined SHEEO in 2022 as a senior policy analyst. In this role, Dr. Burns led, coordinated, and developed a multiyear research endeavor to quantify the impacts of college closures on student persistence and completion. Dr. Burns also assists in a variety of areas, including supporting SHEEO’s efforts to perform high-quality analysis, policy evaluation, and research in order to advance critical programs and projects.

Before joining SHEEO, Dr. Burns was a research education analyst in RTI International’s Center for Education Survey Research and Analysis, where she specialized in large-scale education survey data, administrative data collection, and variable specification and construction. Her work at RTI focused on postsecondary education surveys for the Institute of Education Sciences at the U.S. Department of Education—primarily on the National Postsecondary Student Aid Study (NPSAS), the High School Longitudinal Study (HSLS), and the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS).

Dr. Burns earned a bachelor’s degree in anthropology from the University of Virginia, and a Master of Public Administration and Ph.D. in higher education from the University of Georgia.