Associate Director, Acquisition and Technology Policy Program; Senior Defense Researcher; Professor of Policy Analysis, Pardee RAND Graduate School
To schedule an interview, call (310) 451-6913 or email media@rand.org.
Megan McKernan is the associate director of the Acquisition and Technology Policy Program in RAND's National Security Research Division. She is a senior defense researcher at RAND and a professor of policy analysis at the Pardee RAND Graduate School. She specializes in Department of Defense (DoD) acquisition of weapon systems along with acquisition data governance, management, sharing, and analytics. She has also conducted analysis in a wide variety of defense acquisition-related areas including: Space and Cyber rapid acquisition; software acquisition; requirements planning; acquisition program office structure; identifying acquisition metrics; contractor performance; Navy innovation and rapid development; prototyping; industrial base considerations; earned value management; tailoring acquisition; program manager tenure; program framing assumptions; rapid acquisition; analysis of root causes of Nunn-McCurdy Unit Cost Breaches; acquisition program cancelations; schedule growth; acquisition knowledge management; and other program-specific analyses. She uses a variety of quantitative and qualitative methods in conducting research including case studies, logic models, maturity models, policy reviews, data collection and analysis, interviews, and literature reviews.
Prior to working at RAND, McKernan was an economic analyst for four years providing reports for policymakers, primarily at the National Security Council, Department of Treasury, and Department of State on global economic issues with a concentration on emerging market countries. She holds an M.A. in international trade and investment policy from George Washington University and a B.A. in economics from William Smith College.
M.A. in international trade and investment policy, George Washington University; B.A. in economics, William Smith College
