Emma Taati serves as senior program associate in the Higher Learning program.  Ms. Taati joined the Foundation in 2014 following 11 years as a staff member at the Social Science Research Council, where she most recently served as associate director of the Mellon Mays Graduate Initiatives.  She has also been a project management consultant to the Graduate Center at the City University of New York, Race Forward, the Institute for Research in African-American Studies at Columbia University, and Teachers College.  Her experience includes roles at the Rockefeller Foundation and at the Barr Foundation in Boston, which resulted in the published study, Catalytic Change:  Lessons Learned from the Racial Justice Grantmaking Assessment.  Ms. Taati graduated from Vassar College with honors in political science and a correlate concentration in women’s studies.