Rachel Slama

Rachel Slama is the Associate Director of the Future of Learning Lab under Associate Professor Rene Kizilcec in the Ann S. Bowers College of Computing and Information Science at Cornell University. Slama’s research focuses on the role of technology in accelerating learning in the rapidly changing world of education and training. She also serves as the co-principal investigator of the National Tutoring Observatory—a partnership led by Cornell, several universities, edtech companies, and school districts to create a large language model (LLM) of tutor-student dialogue and more intelligent human and AI tutors.

Slama’s prior roles include the Director of the Labor and Workforce Development portfolio at RAND where she led the AI and workforce program; a rotator program director at the National Science Foundation in the Technology, Innovation, Innovation, and Partnerships directorate;  Associate Director of the MIT Teaching Systems Lab (under Justin Reich); and a senior researcher at the American Institutes for Research. Slama received her doctorate in Education Policy, Leadership, and Instructional Practice from Harvard University where she was an Ambach Fellow-- an opportunity designed to promote innovation in state education agencies. 

Based in Boston, Slama was recently appointed to the Massachusetts Task Force on Education and Training for Workforce Development as part of Governor Healey’s new AI Hub.