Hannah Kakara Anderson PhD, MBA (she/her)
Assistant Professor, University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine
Education Scientist, The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia
Dates of Visit: January 17 – 22, 2027
Biography
Hannah Kakara Anderson PhD, MBA is an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and an Education Scientist at The Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where she leads research on educational equity. Her work defines educational equity as not only the restoration of equality for historically marginalized groups but also going beyond equality to proactively build systems that ensure just treatment, access, and opportunities for a diverse society. Hannah has pioneered the application of justice-oriented assessment (originally developed in K-12 educational research), demonstrating how inequity can be fundamentally woven into the design of assessments in medical education and how inequity can be perpetuated and replicated by seemingly neutral learning environments. To address these inequities, she is leading a multisite design-based research project, Designing for Equity in Medical Education, where she works alongside pediatric residents, patients, faculty, and staff to redesign effective, more equitable assessments at five children’s hospitals across the U.S. Hannah is the founder of the Learning Design Collective, dedicated to helping clinicians, educators, and scientists apply design thinking to address complex challenges in healthcare
Purpose of Visit
During her visit to CHES, Dr. Anderson will be meeting with individual members of the CHES community to discuss their research ideas, offer advice, and explore areas of joint interest. Dr. Anderson will also be presenting at the CHES Cutting Edge Speaker Series on January 19, 2027.