[3] Kessel received her Ph.D. in mathematics from the University of Colorado Boulder, specializing in mathematical logic, and taught for three years after earning her Ph.D. She taught for a total of 13 years as a graduate and postgraduate until the 1990s when she made the switch to research in education.
[4] She began auditing courses and working on research projects at the School of Education at the University of California at Berkeley.
This led to a career that included editing reports, books, articles, and curriculum and standards documents.
Kessel has participated in multiple projects pertaining to mathematics education, including the following.
[5] In 2017, she was selected as a fellow of the Association for Women in Mathematics in the inaugural class.