2023 - present Chief Strategy and Evidence Officer, FHI 360, Washington, DC

Serves on the executive team and leads the Strategy, Innovation, and Evidence Office, which has responsibility for company-level functions including strategy development and realization of FHI 360's strategic ambition, innovation structures and programs, corporate measurement for impact and performance, organizational evaluation, and evidence review and use. Serves on the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network Policy Working Group, including the Accountability and Innovation sub-committees. Also, Editor-in-Chief for the R&E Search for Evidence blog.

2022 – 2023            Head of Strategy and Principal Economist, FHI 360, Washington, DC

Designed and led FHI 360’s corporate strategy development and implementation of strategic impact framework. FY23-25 strategy development included creating FHI 360’s principles of locally led development through a company-wide input process and engaging leadership to identify the big global challenges that will define FHI 360 going forward. Led a participatory process to develop FHI 360’s innovation architecture. Reported to the Board of Directors on strategy and served as management liaison to the board’s Program Impact Committee. Directed the Strategy and Innovation Team. As a member of FHI 360’s Expanded Leadership Forum, informed corporate decision making and contributed to leadership initiatives, for example the DEI metrics working group and the locally led development task team. As a member of the company Bid Board, participated in business development decisions and served as a proposal reviewer.

This position also included the responsibilities described for Principal Economist below.

2016 – 2022 Principal Economist, Editor-in-Chief, R&E Search for Evidence; Director, Research and Evaluation Strategic Initiative, FHI 360, Washington DC

Designed and led initiatives to facilitate evidence production and use and to promote FHI 360 scientists and researchers. Built collaboration across departments and regions. Led corporate initiatives to promote locally led development, including Board of Directors education. Served as FHI 360 representative on the Modernizing Foreign Assistance Network Working Group, and served on the industry-wide Benchmarking Race, Inclusion and Diversity in Global Engagement (BRIDGE) Advisory Council. Directs, conducts, and quality assures research. Edited content and wrote content for the R&E Search for Evidence blog. Oversaw the implementation of company-wide social impact reporting, for which she developed the concepts and process. Directed the Research and Evaluation Strategic Initiative, including strategic plan development and implementation, and selection and oversight of internal research projects.

2021 Lecturer, Harris School of Public Policy, University of Chicago

Taught PPHA 37730, Global Health Policy. Designed and proposed course for inclusion as an elective course in the master's curriculum.

2010 – 2016 Head, Washington Office and Deputy Director; Chief Evaluation Officer, International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), Washington, DC

Directed multiple programs, including impact evaluation grants windows, public databases, replication research, 3ie membership, and various professional services contracts and research projects. Liaised with and provided capacity building services to government agencies and other policy makers in low-, middle- and high-income countries regarding evidence-based policy making. Conducted fundraising. Served on 3ie executive team and participated in strategic and organizational development initiatives. Supervised and conducted research and spoke publicly. Research topics included youth and transferable skills, peace-building, governance, HIV prevention and treatment, implementation science, and internal replication.

Headed 3ie’s Washington, DC office, including 12 staff plus interns and consultants, with an annual budget of US$10 million. Responsible for all legal and administrative aspects of establishing and maintaining that office. Headed 3ie’s evaluation office, which at the time was responsible for ensuring the quality of all impact evaluations funded by 3ie.

2007 – 2010 Director in the Middle East Division; Department Director of Knowledge and Innovation Department (KID); Director of Impact Measurement, Chemonics International Inc., Washington, DC

Participated in business development, project management, and technical assistance for USAID projects, primarily economic growth and democracy & governance, in all regions. As Department Director for KID, oversaw Chemonics’ impact measurement program, its ten technical communities of practice, its applied research program, and support to projects for innovation processes. Supervised 12-15 home office, part-time and full-time staff and established an internship program. Chaired the AIMS working group, which developed Chemonics’ corporate standards of project excellence and the firm’s assessment tool and indicator for monitoring projects’ performance in Achieving, Innovating, Measuring, and Sharing. Responsible for developing and implementing impact measurement methodologies across practices and regions. Research advisor for staff research rotations and for other research activities in the firm.

2005 – 2007 Center Director, International Activities Center, Urban Institute, Washington, DC

Directed the International Activities Center (IAC), which earned $25-30M in annual revenue and employed 45 full-time employees on average as well as dozens of international consultants and hundreds of host-country employees and consultants. Ultimate responsibility for over 40 active projects in more than 20 different countries in all developing regions of the world. Designed and implemented an organizational restructuring of the center and developed and instituted financial and human resources policies specific to international development contracts. IAC technical expertise included local governance, performance budgeting and management, intergovernmental finance, citizen participation and civil society engagement, think tank development, local economic development, housing markets and policy, municipal finance, housing finance and microfinance, evaluation and assessment, government asset management, and water and utilities service provision.

1999 – 2005 Senior Manager; Manager; Senior Associate, Emerging Markets division, BearingPoint, Inc. (now part of Deloitte), McLean, VA and Yerevan, Armenia

Responsibilities included technical assistance, economic research, project management, and business development. Technical areas included micro and macro-economics, poverty reduction strategies, performance monitoring and evaluation, tax policy analysis, tax revenue estimation, economic modeling, think tank development, policy analysis training, and database development. Established and directed the division’s Performance Management and Evaluation Unit. Served as resident technical advisor to the Ministry of Finance in Armenia. Founding Executive Editor of Armenian journal Economic Policy and Poverty. 

1996 – 1999 Assistant Professor, Department of Economics, Western Michigan University, Kalamazoo, Michigan

Courses taught included: PhD field course in industrial organization; undergraduate courses in labor economics, international economics, and micro-economics; senior seminar in comparative economics-the designated writing course for the department; and an undergraduate/graduate transition economics speaker series course. Research themes included: multi-year project on industrial structure and competition in Russia (details under Stockholm Institute below); managerial labor markets in Romania; internal labor migration in Russia; and when is transition over.

1997 – 1999 Research Associate (in residence during summers), Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics, Stockholm, Sweden

Co-principal investigator for large grant-funded research project titled "Competition, Reallocation, and Industrial Evolution: Advances in the Economics of Industrial Organization Using Economy-wide Panel Data on Firms in Russia". Papers include "Does Market Structure Matter? New Evidence from Russia" and "The Transition of Market Structure in Russia: Economic Lessons and Implications for Competition" among others.  

1995 – 1996 Long-term Consultant, World Bank, Washington, DC.

Research Team Member for the 1996 World Development Report From Plan to Market. Topical responsibilities included poverty, inequality, labor markets, education, and gender issues. Tasks included research and writing. Also for the World Bank from May 1992 to August 1993 and short term during 1994: participated in two Enterprise Behavior and Reform survey projects for Russia. Project topics for the surveys included effects of privatization and market infrastructure on competition. Served on mission team to Armenia and assisting in writing an Armenia Country Report. Researched market structure and provided policy advice on competition to World Bank economists for Russia.

1989 – 1994 National Science Foundation Fellow and Regents Fellow in Graduate Studies, Department of Economics and Program in Russian and East European Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan

Completed dissertation titled "Issues for Economic Transition in Russia: Industrial Structure, Worker Share Ownership, and Internal Migration." Participated as the economist in a large multi-disciplinary research project on Estonia and produced two papers on Estonian economic transition.  

1988 – 1989 Research Assistant, Economic Studies Program, The Brookings Institution, Washington, DC

Provided economic research assistance to Dr. Charles L. Schulze.