# Q&A with Kristina Cassiday, Cohort 9 SDP Fellow Alumna August 07, 2024 - [ Blog ](/news-categories/blog) *This Q&A is part of an SDP Blog series profiling members of the 2023 – 2025 SDP Alumni Advisory Board. All posts from this series may be found* [*here*](/news/alumni-advisory-board)*.* ![Kristina Cassidy](/sites/g/files/omnuum4446/files/sdp/files/kc.png) [Kristina Cassiday](/people/kristina-cassiday) is a Cohort 9 (2017-2019) alumna of the Strategic Data Project (SDP) Fellowship, where she was placed as the Assistant Director of Research and Evaluation at [City Teaching Alliance,](https://cityteachingalliance.org/) formerly known as Urban Teachers, a teacher preparation and development program. During her fellowship, Kristina conducted a case study exploring the relationship between resident teachers and host teachers, revealing the importance of the resident–host teacher experience to resident satisfaction and to perceived preparedness for when participants have their own classroom. In addition to this case study, she revamped the participant accountability model, conducted needs assessments, worked to streamline the recruitment and selection process of prospective teachers, and built data capacity within her team by automating routine tasks and hosting coding brown bag lunches for staff professional development. Kristina is now the Senior Director of Evaluation and Research at [Junior Achievement USA](https://jausa.ja.org/), where she is responsible for supporting and designing assessment, measurement, and evaluation activities and projects to quantify the impact of student-centric programs and developing tools and systems to facilitate the collection of students’ performance data. Kristina has also worked as a Research Analyst at the University of Maryland's Graduate School, regularly coding, analyzing, and presenting data to various stakeholders, and as Program Manager for large-scale K-12 assessments at the American Institutes for Research, where she provided teacher training on engaging students in cognitive labs for the Smarter Balanced Assessment Consortium. Kristina is a former Peace Corps Volunteer, where she taught English to non-native speakers in China. She received her Ph.D. in Quantitative Methodology from the University of Maryland and her M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) from the Middlebury Institute of International Studies. **Tell us about your current job!** In my role at Junior Achievement USA, I have the opportunity to lead some really meaningful projects, including a longitudinal study focusing on the impact of one of our financial literacy programs on students' financial behaviors and attitudes. Recently, we completed a pilot of our credentialing assessments, and I was heavily involved from start to finish, from providing feedback on the initial storyboards, to working with the developer to have the data set up in a usable format, to analyzing the data. I provided feedback to our internal teams that will result in improvements to the assessment questions and used the data to provide recommendations about policies for delivering the assessments. I appreciate working with such a passionate group of professionals who believe in empowering students and young people through financial literacy and work and career readiness education. **What skills did you gain from your time as an SDP Fellow that you find helpful in your current role?** The SDP Fellowship helped me to find my role as a change agent. While I improved my coding and data visualization skills, the most important takeaway for me was learning how to leverage my background in quantitative methodology to generate the greatest impact within my organization. It is easy for researchers and technical specialists to become pigeonholed at various points in their careers. Knowing how to identify and recruit key stakeholders to your cause is what empowers you to continue lifting up your team. **What is the most memorable or impactful moment or experience from your time as an SDP Fellow?** One of the most memorable moments for me during the fellowship was during a workshop in New Orleans. During one of the dinners, we were all split into groups and sent to different restaurants around the city. When we got there, each group met with an SDP Fellow alum who we had the chance to get to know better. Our groups discussed different issues in the education field, with each of us providing our perspective. I really enjoyed being able to sit down to dinner with a group of people serving in a variety of roles and hearing different ways of thinking about the topic. It was a great way to learn more about our fellowship cohort and certainly ensured a lively discussion! **What advice would you give to prospective SDP Fellows?** If you are passionate about the education field and want to make a difference in the lives of students through the use of data, apply to the fellowship! The network is such an amazing group of people, and the workshops and professional development are eye-opening. In fact, one of the workshop presentations was so inspiring to me, it informed my doctoral dissertation topic. **What is something that you would tell your younger self about your career?** Finding your career and your passion is not always linear. Don't decide who you want to be in high school. Instead, give yourself an opportunity to explore possibilities before making a decision. And even when you think you have figured out a career path, don't be afraid to pivot. Being able to give this advice reflects the enormous amount of privilege that I have because not everyone has the means to explore in this way. We need to find ways to support students through career exploration, including providing more opportunities to learn about different careers and allowing them to take time to reflect and consider their options. Young people are forced to decide on a career pathway too early without a lot of understanding of the opportunities that are out there in line with their interests, skills, and abilities. **What is something you enjoy in your free time?** I love spending time with my husband and my two young children. I also enjoy sewing and belong to a local sewing group. See also:- [ Alumni Advisory Board ](/news/alumni-advisory-board) Share on:- [ Facebook ](#) - [ Twitter ](#) - [ Linkedin ](#)