Katharina Ley Best
KBEST@RAND.ORG
EDUCATION
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, MI
M.E., Industrial and Operations Engineering (May 2011)
Ph.D., Industrial and Operations Engineering (December 2013)
Concentration in Financial Engineering
Sep 2009-Dec 2013
UNIVERSITY OF VIRGINIA, Charlottesville,
B.S., Systems Engineering with Computer Systems Concentration
Graduated with High Distinction, Minors: Philosophy, Computer Science
Sep 2003-May 2007
PROFESSIONAL EXPERIENCE
Nov 2013-present
THE RAND CORPORATION, Washington, DC
Associate Operations Researcher
§ Developing force structure, readiness, and force projection models to help senior Army leadership with
strategic force management decisions
§ Identifying optimal global access strategies for Army rapid deployment forces through development of a
variety of access, infrastructure, timing, and airlift models
§ Exploring use of Qualitative Comparative Analysis in evaluations of K-12 individualized learning platforms
§ Assessing impact of education, workforce development, and human resources programs for military spouses
VIDEOLOGY, Baltimore, MD
May-Aug 2012
Summer Intern, Research and Development
§ Led large data audit project for individual-level user data comparing age/gender accuracy across providers
§ Presented findings to CEO and other executives as well as stakeholders throughout the company
§ Helped develop improved advertising targeting system based on audit findings
May-Dec 2011
THE RAND CORPORATION, Washington, DC
Summer Associate/Adjunct Researcher
§ Conducted an independent comparative study of the Army Future Combat Systems and other large
acquisition programs
AMERICAN EXPRESS, New York, NY
Jun-Aug 2010
Consumer Card Risk Management Intern
§ Managed and implemented web behavior analysis project to determine whether potential customers’ website
behavior could serve as a predictor of customer risk or future performance
§ Conducted meetings with marketing, modeling, and business intelligence teams to suggest and begin
implementation of potential changes to website, such as addition of page order optimization
OLIVER WYMAN FINANCIAL SERVICES, New York, NY
Jul 2007-Feb 2009
Corporate Risk Consultant
§ Worked closely with clients in upper level management positions to assess company risks, develop risk
monitoring systems and risk management frameworks, and determine future improvement work streams
§ Worked with the Corporate Risk Domain to develop Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) materials for
clients outside of the financial services space, including energy, defense, manufacturing, and insurance
§ Developed templates and management and data-tracking systems for consultants and clients
§ Contributed to a variety of Celent research reports, and served as primary analyst and co-author for “The
Global Credit Crisis: Implications for European Wealth Management”
TEACHING EXPERIENCE
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, Ann Arbor, MI
§ Summer 2013: Financial Engineering Masters Program, Intensive Summer Preparatory Math Sequence
o Full-time instructor for multi-day segments on probability and R programming
o Responsible for all course materials and lectures for about 90 incoming Masters students
§ Fall 2011 & Winter 2012: IOE 202–Operations Modeling (Primary Instructor)
o Developed and delivered all course materials, lectures, homework, and exams for about 120
undergraduates
o Responsible 120 undergraduate students, two teaching assistants, and a grader
o Course covers inventory modeling, forecasting, linear programming, simulation, and queuing
Katharina Ley Best
RESEARCH AND PROJECTS
Analysis of risk in higher education and financial aid decisions
2010-2013
§ Studied previously under-used data on student loan-backed securities to determine the impact of underlying
student characteristics on loan default risk
§ Developed a continuous-time student loan default model using individual student data
§ Examined the possible existence of behavioral market inefficiencies in the higher education market
§ Studied the effect of educational choices such as school and major selection on post-college income
§ Developed models of lifecycle income expectations based on student characteristics and choices
§ Used individual-level school choice data to examine drivers of the school choice decision
The impact of credit growth and aid on college tuition and fees
2009-2013
§ Analyzed credit, tuition, and social trends over time to identify common trends and causal links
§ Compiled extensive dataset of economic data relevant to supply and demand of undergraduate education
§ Conducted regression analysis to identify key drivers of supply and demand
§ Collected data and conducted analysis to compare public and private spending on higher education outcomes
across Europe and North America
Business plan and website development: MicroParticle Proteomics
2008-2009
§ Co-developed and wrote the initial business plan and growth strategy for MicroParticle Proteomics LLC, a
biotechnology start-up specializing in proteomics for diagnoses and disease monitoring
§ Planned and implemented company website reflecting the business plan’s strategies
2006-2007
Senior Capstone and Thesis Project: Distributed Search by Mobile Sensors
§ Developed working test-bed of an autonomous-robot search and surveillance system
§ Conducted research to minimize operator and communications capacity requirements for these systems
§ Designed and analyzed MatLab simulation for pattern recognition and related changes to search algorithm
PUBLICATIONS & PRESENTATIONS
§ Best, Eckhause, “Evaluating Basing Options for Optimizing Accessibility for a Global Response Force”,
Presented by Jeremy Eckhause at INFORMS Annual Conference, San Francisco, CA. Nov. 9-12, 2014.
§ Best, Keppo, “Picking the wealthy: An examination of college admissions and future earnings”, Forthcoming.
§ Best, “Three Studies on the Value and Risk of Higher Education,” Ph.D. Dissertation, University of
Michigan, December 2013.
§ Best, Keppo, “A Simple Hazard Model of Student Loan Defaults,” Presented at INFORMS Annual
Conference, Phoenix, Arizona, Oct. 2012.
§ Best, Keppo, “The Credits that Count: How Credit Growth and Financial Aid Inflate College Tuition and
Fees,” Education Economics, 2012, 1-25; Presented at University in Transition Conference, Helsinki, Finland,
April 2012 & INFORMS Annual Conference, Austin, Texas, Nov. 9, 2010.
§ Fonseca, Ley, Nawal, The Global Credit Crisis: Implications for European Wealth Management, New York: Celent
(Oliver Wyman), 2009.
§ Ley, Comer, Counihan, Czarnecki, Foster, Husain, McCrabb, “Developing a Test-Bed for Distributed Search
by Mobile Sensors,” IEEE Systems and Information Engineering Design Symposium, 2007.
SPECIAL SKILLS
§ English (Native, US Citizen), German (Native, born in Berlin, Germany), Spanish (Intermediate)
§ Modeling, Statistics, and Specialty Software: R, Stata, SAS, @Risk, Arena, StatTools, DreamWeaver
§ Programming Experience: Python, MapReduce, Java, C++, SQL, PHP, HTML, Visual Basic, Matlab
AWARDS & OTHER ACTIVITIES
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Winner, AAUW Dissertation Writing Fellowship, 2012-13
Finalist, Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship for New Americans, 2010
University of Michigan INFORMS Student Chapter, Member
826 Michigan math and science tutor
SunTrust Richmond Marathon 2005 & Disney World Marathon 2007 Finisher
Society of Women Engineers and Tau Beta Pi Engineering Honor Society Member
UVA/MIT Policy Internship Program Participant, 2007