Rayan is a Senior Science Analyst at Schmidt Sciences. In this role, she works across the Virtual Institutes and performs implementation support and analyses.

Prior to joining Schmidt Sciences, Rayan was a Research Assistant with the Guttmacher Institute. There, she made substantive contributions to major domestic national censuses and helped analyzing data to understand the effect of policy on sexual and reproductive health (SRH) service provision internationally. In early 2021, Rayan collaborated with researchers in Ethiopia in collecting and analyzing data to understand the effect of COVID-19 on SRH services delivery. Results from the analysis were used to inform the Ethiopian Ministry of Health. She also supported the Institute’s reproducibility initiative and applied strong quantitative skills.

As an undergraduate, Rayan served as a Statistical Analyst Fellow with St. Olaf College’s Center for Interdisciplinary Research, examining physicians’ behaviors related to hospice care using Medicare claims data. Rayan was also a Biostatistics Research Intern with the Chronic Disease Research Group in Minneapolis, where she performed literature reviews and analyzed national transplant registry data to evaluate U.S. veterans’ access to organ transplant services.

Rayan graduated from St. Olaf College with majors in Economics and Biology and a concentration in statistics and data science.