Marissa Block Email & Phone Number

Greater Chicago Area

• Supported the development of weekly material to review lectures during TA sessions, including both theory and practical application in R• Responsible for grading problem sets and exams

Greater Chicago Area

• Staffed weekly office hours to support students one-on-one with writing assignments including policy memos• Reviewed and graded 50+ policy memos

• Prepared weekly lessons to teach graduate students basic programming skills, complementing the statistics sequence and program evaluation course• Responsible for providing support to 200+ students

New Delhi Area, India

• Designed a needs assessment survey to evaluate data and evidence-use skills of officials in five government departments in Bihar; included two field visits for scoping and piloting of survey

Chicago, Il

• Compiled literature review of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) interventions and synthesize findings; will be used as input to article evaluating CBT intervention• Adjusted and edited existing Stata code to provide data quality check matching tutor and student attendance data; analyzed attendance data to determine whether students are working with assigned tutors; emphasis on replicability and clear documentation of code

Washington D.C. Metro Area

During my time at MCC I was responsible for several analytic and administrative tasks. My analytic work was primarily in support of cost-benefit analyses (CBA) of the agency’s projects and the analysis of selected countries’ economies using the growth diagnostics methodology, in order to determine where U.S. taxpayers’ dollars will be responsibly invested. This work included frequent cleaning and transforming of large data sets (20,000+ observations) in Excel and Stata. I also regularly performed descriptive and inferential statistical analysis and literature reviews. My key accomplishments include:• For an $84 million education investment in El Salvador, I analyzed household surveys, school census data, and crime statistics and attended a one-week mission trip in April 2016 to work with counterparts to initiate a work plan to update an existing CBA model.• Developed a CBA model for a proposed $30 million education investment in teacher training in Cote d'Ivoire• Coauthored two annual reports with Senior Economist on the coverage and characteristics of economic rates of return across MCC investments. The 2016 report was presented at the 2017 Annual Conference of the Society for Benefit-Cost Analysis in March.• Conducted analysis of survey of students and teachers (~1,400 observations) in 60 middle schools in Guatemala and produced technical note and summary reports• Organized week-long forum attended by MCC’s M&E and Economic Analysis counterparts from 20+ partner countries to discuss best practices and promote collaboration• Performed numerous administrative duties including managing the division’s project database, handling the intern selection process and developing intern work plans, and managing the division’s web content. In 2014, I supported the planning of a full-day team retreat focusing on problem diagnostic tools using political economy framework. My work included preparing background reading materials and developing discussion questions.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

• Researched and synthesized methodologies and case studies of donor interventions of policy and institutional reform and presented findings to team

• Teaching assistant for Economics 101 and Basic Econometrics• Held review sessions on basic economics concepts and helped students develop a study guide to ensure the appropriate materials were reviewed for exams• Aided students with their final project of estimating an econometric model, which included reviewing presentation materials and hosting presentation dry runs

Washington D.C. Metro Area

• Researched and prepared timelines of current events in the Middle East for investor clients with regional holdings• Prepared briefing materials on prospective oil and gas fields in the Middle East

Master Of Public Policy - Mpp, Certificate In Survey Research

Activities and Societies: Pearson Fellow at the Pearson Institute for the Study and Resolution of Global Conflicts

Summer Program, Arabic

Six week summer immersion program in Meknes, Morocco

Bachelor Of Science (B.S.), Economics, International Studies - Middle Eastern Studies

Activities and Societies: 2013-14 Trinity College Community Learning Research Fellow, Model United Nations - President, Model Arab League.

Arabic Persian Turkish Language Immersion Institute, Arabic

Six week summer language immersion program

Study Abroad, Development Economics, Middle Eastern Studies