Kathleen Feeney

Kathleen Feeney specializes in mixed-methods studies, employing approaches that incorporate community voice and produce actionable insights. 

In addition to working across the federal, state, and foundation sectors, Feeney has partnered with Tribal Nations and Indigenous communities for over a decade on projects across education, early childhood, child welfare, family support, and nutrition. Currently, Feeney directs a Regional Educational Laboratory (REL) Central partnership with Standing Rock Tribal Education Department and Sitting Bull College, supporting local efforts to design place-based, project-based learning materials for elementary math learners in Standing Rock. She currently oversees qualitative data collection on a study exploring how Healthy Marriage and Responsible Fatherhood grant programs can be more culturally responsive to Indigenous communities, and recently led the development of a survey to understand the use of Native American languages in the United States for the Administration for Native Americans (ANA). On both projects, Feeney engaged community workgroups to inform all project phases. She also directs a study of Vermont’s intake and referral system for early childhood services to identify opportunities for further coordination, and recently led mixed method data collection to evaluate the early implementation and initial outcomes of Massachusetts’ early childhood education Registered Apprenticeship program.

Through a deep commitment to the inclusion of community voices in research and evaluation design, implementation, and analysis and the production of actionable products, Feeney hopes to bridge the gap between researchers and practitioners to inform decision making and improve social services. She holds an M.Ed. in Education Policy & Analysis from the Harvard Graduate School of Education and a B.A. in psychology from Swarthmore College. Outside of Mathematica, Feeney has served as the course assistant for Harvard Kennedy School’s “Native Americans in the 21st Century: Nation Building II” since 2024 and recently joined the Associate Board for Girls on the Run Greater Boston.