Kat Devlin

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Washington, DC 20009
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Last updated: Oct. 2021 ———————————————–

Objective

Leverage quantitative skill set and international relations knowledge to carry out insightful computational research products for a wide array of technical and non-technical audiences.

Professional Experience

Associate - McKinsey & Company Washington, DC; August 2021-Present

• Integrative consultant assisting an array of private, public and social sector clients to solve their most pressing challenges

Research Associate I/II - Global Attitudes & Trends, Pew Research Center Washington, DC; May 2018-July 2021

• Manage research agenda, project schedules and $4 million budget proposals for projects that include surveys in 40 countries, globalization focus groups in Western Europe and fieldwork observation in East Africa

• Author of more than 20 reports, op-eds and blog posts on topics such as global perceptions of China, attitudes toward U.S. foreign policy and views of COVID-19-related topics

• Deliver reports to policymakers, academics, foundations and private sector groups, including Senate Foreign Relations Committee staff, the U.S.-China Business Council and Shell Global

• Collaborate on computational social science projects, including text-as-data analyses with focus group transcripts, structural topic modeling and hierarchical modeling with social media data

• Design survey questionnaires, review country sample plans, manage international fieldwork, perform quality control and assess survey weights using R, SPSS and Stata

Teaching Fellow - Applied Quantitative Analysis (Dr. Justin Thomas), Yale University New Haven, CT; January-May 2017

• Taught introductory applied statistics for 30 social science undergraduate students emphasizing statistical concepts such as significance testing, data visualization, linear regression and efficient coding in Stata

Research Analyst, Pew Research Center Washington, D.C.; March 2013-July 2015

• Assisted in managing research agenda, tracking project schedules, data management and fact checking

• Researched topics for future surveys, such as Chinese soft power, international investment and trade

English Teaching Assistant, U.S. Fulbright Program Ulu Tiram, Malaysia; January-November 2012

• Taught conversational English to more than 1,500 high school students in southern Malaysia

• Developed and coordinated English language camps in 14 locations throughout southern Malaysia

• Secured $500 of equipment from nonprofit organizations and the U.S. Embassy for the school’s softball team

Education

Master’s Degree, Global Affairs; concentrations in Quantitative Research Methods and Chinese Studies, 2017
Yale University - Jackson Institute for Global Affairs (New Haven, CT)

• Relevant Coursework: Applied Methods of Data Analysis, Multivariate Statistics, Advanced Business Analytics with Spreadsheets, Big Data & Global Policies, Microeconomic Principles and Applications, Macroeconomics, Logic of Empirical Research, Economic Strategies for Doing Business in Emerging Markets

• Activities: Managing Editor for Articles, Yale Journal of International Affairs; Member, Yale Law School Wine Society

Bachelor’s Degree, Political Science; minor in Chinese Studies, 2011
Villanova University (Villanova, PA), magna cum laude, honors program

Select Publications

• “As Pandemic Continues, More in U.S. and Europe Feel Major Impact on Their Lives”
• “Legislators in UK, Canada and Australia Express Post-election Enthusiasm for Biden Administration on Twitter”
• “How quantitative methods can supplement a qualitative approach when working with focus groups”
• “Most Approve of National Response to COVID-19 in 14 Advanced Economies”
• “Analyzing international survey data with the pewmethods R package”
• “China’s Economic Growth Mostly Welcomed in Emerging Markets, but Neighbors Wary of Its Influence”
• “Most Japanese think their country’s best days are behind them” (Channel NewsAsia op-ed)
• “U.S.-China Cooperation on Wildlife Smuggling: An Opportunity” (East-West Center op-ed)

Conference Presentations and Papers

• “To Pulse or Not to Pulse? The Implications of Pulsing in European CATI Surveys,” American Association of Public Opinion Research 2020. Co-authors: Martha McRoy, Stacy Pancratz and Patrick Moynihan

• “Exploring the link between European political parties’ ideology and their popularity on Twitter,” American Association of Public Opinion Research 2019. Co-author: Adam Hughes

• “The Implications of Sample-Based Versus Self-Reported Measures of Urbanicity,” American Association of Public Opinion Research 2019. Co-authors: Alex Castillo, Janell Fetterold and Courtney Johnson

• “Cultural Diversity Is Associated with Greater Support for Nondemocratic Governance,” American Association of Public Opinion Research 2019. Co-authors: Alex Castillo, Janell Fetterold and Courtney Johnson

Skills and Training

• Statistical Analysis: R (tidyverse, lme4, tidymodels, survey), Stata, SPSS, Excel
• Machine Learning: supervised classification (support-vector machines, gradient boosting)
• Text Analysis: word2vec, topic models (LDA, STM)
• Foreign Language: Proficiency in Mandarin Chinese, all modalities
• Volunteer/Affiliations: Council on Foreign Relations, Young Professionals Program, 2018-Present; Freer/Sackler Museum of Asian Art, Member, 2018-Present
• Workshops Attended: Text As Data with R, 3-day seminar with Dr. Brandon Stewart (2020); Multilevel Modeling in R, 3-day seminar with Dr. Stephen Vaisey (2019)