Rampell grew up in a Jewish family in South Florida, the daughter of Ellen (née Kahn), an accountant, and Richard Rampell.

[4] Rampell graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Princeton University with a Bachelor of Arts (AB) in anthropology in 2007 after completing a 150-page-long senior thesis, titled "Hawk the Vote: Marketing Voting to American Youth", under the supervision of James A.

[7] Prior to joining The Washington Post, Rampell was an economics journalist, theater critic, and blogger for The New York Times.

[9] In September 2014, Rampell married Christopher Conlon.

[10] Conlon has served as an Assistant Professor of Economics at Columbia University and Associate Professor of Economics at New York University's Stern School of Business.