Rachel Slama is the director of the labor and workforce development program and a senior policy researcher at the RAND Corporation. Slama previously served as co-director of the Teaching Systems Lab at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), a research and design lab comprised of learning scientists, engineers, and STEM education and simulation experts. Slama’s research is at the nexus of emerging technology, adult learning, and cross-sector partnerships. She develops, deploys, and evaluates interactive tools for learning at scale.

Slama has worked with partners in education, military, and healthcare with a range of learning goals including upskilling, building resilience to misinformation online, and STEM workforce development. She recently led a multi-institutional project as part of the National Science Foundation Convergence Accelerator program to build trust and authenticity in communication systems. In this capacity, Slama worked in close coordination with multiple federal agencies including the U.S. Departments of Defense, State, and Health and Human Services. She has also developed training materials to build local resilience to disinformation by state actors.

Slama’s motivation for leading education and workforce development projects stems from her experience as a bilingual paraprofessional in the Atlanta Public Schools, a bilingual teacher in New York City, and her family’s access to education and upskilling as immigrants. Slama received a doctorate from Harvard University in education policy analysis where she was a Gordon M. Ambach Fellow, an opportunity designed to promote innovation and learning in state education agencies.