Susannah Hume is Director of Evaluation at the Policy Institute. Her research interests include children, young people and education; political and civic engagement; behavioural insights; and policy evaluation and analysis. Susannah has conducted over thirty randomised controlled trials (RCTs) and quasi-experimental evaluations, mainly in primary, secondary, further and higher education in the UK. In addition, she has conducted behavioural insights studies across a range of fields including skills, careers, electoral enrolment, physical activity, and cancer screening. She co-authored Social Butterflies, a book about social psychology and social nudges, alongside a number of papers and reports, including two papers applying behavioural insights to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Prior to joining the Policy Institute, Susannah was the founding Associate Director for What Works at King’s, and served as the establishing Director for the Centre for Transforming Access and Student Outcomes (TASO) prior to its spinout from King’s. She was Principal Advisor and Head of Skills at the Behavioural Insights Team, where she served as ultimate Director of the Behavioural Research Centre for Adult Skills and Knowledge, a multi-year research centre focused that involved 26 RCTs on applying behavioural insights to increasing uptake of and success in Level 2 maths and English courses. Prior to that Susannah served in a variety of roles in central government in Australia.

Susannah is on the Cabinet Office’s Evaluation and Trials Advisory Panel and the Youth Futures Foundation’s Evaluation Advisory Group. She is also a governor of a further education college and trustee of TASO, where she also chairs the Research and Evaluation Subcommittee.

She received her PhD in Political Science from King’s College London, where she studied experimental interventions to increase engagement with politics, particularly among young women.