Rachel Snyder

Rachel Snyder is a recent graduate of the Master in Public Policy program at the Harvard Kennedy School. She focused her research and work in best practices for local, state, and federal actors to design policy and programs that reimagine the relationship between education and work. Prior to the Kennedy School, she worked for Washington, D.C. Public Schools, where she brought together business, public, and nonprofit partners in the region to expand work-based learning opportunities for D.C. youth and went on to support the passage of the first apprenticeship policy for K-12 students.

During her time at the Kennedy School, she worked on workforce and education policy initiatives in the governor’s offices of Arizona and Wyoming and published longitudinal research on student outcomes for one of the first U.S. youth apprenticeship programs as a Project on Workforce research assistant. Previously, Rachel taught 8th grade science; her students’ stories are her motivation to create new pathways to good jobs. Rachel is a native Arizonan and holds a Bachelor of Arts in sustainability and political science from Arizona State University. She is an avid hiker and jigsaw puzzle enthusiast.

Initial Fellowship Focus: Meeting the Demand: Growing and Diversifying the Workforce to Support Housing Needs