I majored in statistics, economics, and mathematics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Following college, I taught high school math at Warren Early College High School in Warrenton, North Carolina as part of Teach for America.
I then worked for 3 years at Khan Academy on the math content team. We developed content—everything from middle school to AP Calculus—that is still used by millions of students worldwide.
Motivated by the possibility of leveraging the explosion of educational data gathered by organizations like Khan Academy, I started my PhD in Stanford’s Graduate School of Education in 2016. My dissertation is on statistical methods for survey data—for example, I use mobile app data to test Piaget’s theories. While at Stanford, I’m most proud of founding Stanford’s Data Science for Social Good Program. I’ve also received an extraordinary data science education thanks to Stanford’s Master’s Program in Statistics, the Stanford Data Lab, and the dozens of wide-ranging projects I’ve been lucky enough to be a part of.
If you’re interested in connecting, feel free to reach me at benastenhaug@gmail.com.