Samer Atshan
Education
M.P.A. in public affairs, The University of Texas at Austin; M.S. in energy and earth resources, The University of Texas at Austin; B.Eng. in mechanical engineering, American University of Beirut
Overview
Samer Atshan is an assistant policy researcher at RAND and a Ph.D. student at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. His research interests include mental and behavioral health, loneliness, social isolation, well-being, and social cohesion. In his work he uses mixed methods and a wide range of data types to investigate policy-relevant behaviors and outcomes. This includes econometric and psychometric methods, social network analysis, text mining, complex system analysis, machine learning, as well as interviews and focus groups. His most recent work focuses on investigating the mental and behavioral health of Palestinian youth in the West Bank, investigating vaccination intentions among essential workers using surveys from the American Life Panel, and following global conversations on contentious issues using twitter and RAND-Lex.
He has an M.P.A. and an M.S. in Energy and Earth Resources from the University of Texas, Austin, and a B.Eng. in mechanical engineering from the American University of Beirut. Prior to joining Pardee RAND, he was a research associate at the RGK Center for Philanthropy and Community Service at the University of Texas, Austin, where he worked on developing the Austin Area Sustainability Indicators. He previously worked at the Texas Commission for Environmental Quality in Austin, Texas, and at the United Nations Development Programme in Beirut, Lebanon.