I am a Global Lead for Labor and Skills at the World Bank Social Protection and Jobs Practice. My interest is in both policy practice and research. My fields of work are development and labor economics. 

I  work with national governments and country and sector teams across the World Bank, leading policy dialogue and analytic programs, and supporting the design and implementation of investment financing projects.  I also lead the design and impact evaluation of novel pilot approaches, joint with partner countries, World Bank project teams, NGOs and the private sector, to create more jobs, connect people to jobs, and increase the quality of jobs.

Since joining the World Bank as Young Professional in 2011, I have conducted work on poverty, social protection, skills, jobs, labor markets and gender in a number of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, East Asia, and Latin America. I have served as Country Poverty Economist for Ethiopia and as Technical Adviser for the Africa Gender Innovation Lab, a gender-focused impact evaluation group at the Africa Chief Economist Office. 

I am non-resident Research Fellow at the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA, Bonn) and have published articles in the American Economic Review, the American Economic Journal: Applied Economics, and the Review of Economics and Statistics. From 2019 to 2022, I was an Adjunct Lecturer at the Harvard Kennedy School, in the Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) Program. 

I hold an MPA in International Development and a PhD in Political Economy and Government (Economics) from Harvard University.