Staff
Vice Presidents
Lawrence MacDonald, Vice President, Communications and Policy Outreach
Todd Moss, Vice President for Programs, and Senior Fellow
Program Staff
Michele de Nevers, Visiting Senior Associate
Amanda Glassman, Director of Global Health Policy, and Senior Fellow
Alexis Sowa, Senior Policy Analyst
Sarah Jane Staats, Director, Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Program
Julia Clark, Policy Analyst
Jenny Kendra, Special Assistant
Kate McQueston, Program Coordinator
Rita Perakis, Program Associate
Emily Putze, Program Coordinator
Sarah Rose, Senior Policy Analyst
Marla Spivack, Program Coordinator
Clare Waite, Head of External Relations in Europe
Communications and Outreach Staff
Lawrence MacDonald, Vice President, Communications and Policy Outreach
Catherine An, Media Relations Associate
Alexandra Gordon, Communications Assistant
Aaron King, Communications Assistant
Kyla Lawrence, Events Manager
John Osterman, Publications Manager
Jenny Ottenhoff, Policy Outreach Associate
Steve Perlow, Web Technology Manager
Beth Schwanke, Senior Associate for Policy Outreach
Finance and Operations Staff
Ellen Mackenzie, Chief Financial Officer and Director for Operations
Michael Brown, Information Technology Manager
Luke Easley, Deputy Director of Finance and Human Resources
Sam Reyes, Systems Administrator
Charlie Rong, Office Manager
Executive Office Staff
Dawn Draayer, Major Gifts Officer
Katherine Douglas Martel, Institutional Advancement Officer
Anna Moran, Institutional Advancement Assistant
David Park, Administrative Assistant to the Executive Office
Brenda Tobin, Executive Assistant to the President
Research Assistants
Interns
Resident Fellows
Owen Barder
Nancy Birdsall
Michael Clemens
Alex Cobham
Kimberly Ann Elliott
Victoria Fan
Alan Gelb
Amanda Glassman
Charles Kenny
Todd Moss
Mead Over
Lant Pritchett
Vijaya Ramachandran
Liliana Rojas-Suarez
David Roodman
Justin Sandefur
William Savedoff
Arvind Subramanian
Visiting Fellows
Kate Almquist Knopf
Satish Chand
Alejandro Foxley
Ethan Kapstein
Clay Lowery
John May
Scott Morris
Laura Paler
Enrique Rueda-Sabater
Andy Sumner
Chun-Wing Tse
Franck Wiebe
Andrew Zeitlin
Non-Resident Fellows
Jenny Aker
Chris Blattman
Jing Cao
Oeindrila Dube
Francis Fukuyama
James Habyarimana
Ricardo Hausmann
Ravi Kanbur
Devesh Kapur
Dean Karlan
Michael Kremer
Carol J. Lancaster
Nora Lustig
Pretap Mehta
Ashoka Mody
Theodore H. Moran
Sendhil Mullainathan
Guillermo Perry
Billy Pizer
Paul Romer
Jeremy Shiffman
Peter Timmer
Jeremy Weinstein
Executive Staff
Nancy Birdsall is the founding President of the Center for Global Development. Before launching the Center, Birdsall served for three years as Senior Associate and Director of the Economic Reform Project at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. Her work at Carnegie focused on issues of globalization and inequality, as well as on the reform of the international financial institutions. From 1993 to 1998, Birdsall was Executive Vice-President of the Inter-American Development Bank, the largest of the regional development banks, where she oversaw a $30 billion public and private loan portfolio. Before joining the Inter-American Development Bank, Birdsall spent 14 years in research, policy, and management positions at the World Bank, most recently as Director of the Policy Research Department.
Ms. Birdsall is the author, co-author, or editor of more than a dozen books and monographs, including, most recently, Cash on Delivery Aid: A New Approach to Foreign Aid, The White House and the World: A Global Development Agenda for the Next U.S. President, Fair Growth: Economic Policies for Latin America's Poor and Middle-Income Majority, and Rescuing the World Bank. She has also written more than 75 articles for books and scholarly journals published in English and Spanish. Shorter pieces of her writing have appeared in dozens of U.S. and Latin American newspapers and periodicals
Full CV
Dawn Draayer is the Major Gifts Officer at the Center for Global Development. She has raised funds for causes including global microfinance while at the Grameen Foundation, direct human services for immigrants and survivors of war while at the Center for Multi-cultural Human Services, as well as work at the Brookings Institution in Global Economy and Development. Draayer attended the United World College of Southeast Asia in Singapore as an Armand Hammer scholar. She has a B.A. from Cornell University with a major in Asian Studies and concentrations in Southeast Asian Studies and Economics.
Katherine Douglas Martel is the Institutional Advancement Officer at the Center for Global Development. She began working at CGD in January 2010. Before joining the Center, Douglas Martel completed a Master of Public Policy with a concentration in international development at Georgetown University. Her thesis evaluated the impact of access to credit and microloans on household schooling decisions in Hyderabad, India. Her experience includes interning for the Legislative and Public Affairs department at the Millennium Challenge Corporation and working for the Equity, Poverty, and the Environment Initiative at the World Resources Institute. Douglas Martel graduated with a BA in public policy and a minor in psychology from Duke University.
Anna Moran is the Institutional Advancement Assistant at the Center for Global Development. Originally from Manila, Philippines, Moran earned her Master’s Degree in Professional Communications from Clark University, where she also earned her BA in Political Science, International Relations and Communications. Prior to CGD, Moran interned in the Brookings Institution’s Metropolitan Policy Program, the United Nations Headquarters in New York, and Congressman James McGovern’s district office.
David Seunglee Park is the Administrative Assistant to the Executive Office at the Center for Global Development. Prior to joining CGD, he interned at various nonprofit organizations in Washington D.C., including Higher Education for Development (HED) and One Common Unity (OCU). He graduated from American University with B.A. in International Relations, concentrating his studies in International Development and Peace and Conflict Resolution.
Brenda Tobin is the executive assistant to the president at the Center for Global Development. She is originally from Tucson, Arizona and graduated with a B.A. in Political Science from the George Washington University in 2010. Before joining CGD, Tobin was a Peace Corps Volunteer for two years working in Cambodia on maternal and child health education.
Communications and Outreach Staff
Lawrence MacDonald
Vice President, Communications and Policy Outreach
Lawrence MacDonald works to increase the policy impact of CGD's research and analysis by leading an integrated communications program that includes publications, media relations, government and NGO outreach, events, and online engagement. Before joining the Center in October 2004, he was a senior communications officer at the World Bank where he provided strategic communications advice to chief economists, coordinated the preparation of research publications, and created the World Bank Research website. He was founding editor of the Bank's Policy Research Report series and launched two innovative yet enduring web tools: the Bank's Online Media Briefing Center and the International AIDS Economic Network (IAEN), a virtual community. Before that, he worked in East and Southeast Asia for 15 years as a reporter and editor for the Asian Wall Street Journal, Agence France Presse, and Asiaweek Magazine.
Catherine An is the media relations associate for the Center for Global Development. Before joining CGD, she worked on the communications teams at the National Alliance to End Homelessness and NARAL Pro-Choice America, where she handled press requests, website management, social media development, and other related projects. She earned her undergraduate degree at the University of California–Davis and hails from northern California.
Alexandra Gordon is the Communications Assistant at CGD. She was previously an intern at the Latin America Working Group, an NGO coalition advocating for U.S. policies that promote human rights, justice and peace in the region. She also interned at the Inter-American Dialogue where she focused on economic growth and inequality in Latin America. Alexandra graduated from American University in May 2011 with a BA in Print Journalism and Spanish and Latin American Studies. As a student she spent a semester in Santiago, Chile and traveled to Guatemala as part of a group devoted to human rights and environmental justice.
Aaron King is a communications assistant at the Center for Global Development. He previously worked for the Aspen Institute Communications and Society Program, where he provided administrative and communications support. He also interned at the World Resources Institute, assisting with the institute’s social media initiative and video production. While there, he developed his interest in sustainable development and motion graphics.
Kyla Lawrence is CGD's Events Manager. In this position she manages the Center’s 80+ events each year, including everything from private roundtables to small seminars to book launches and other large public forums. Prior to joining the Center, she coordinated the logistics for fundraising events and provided administrative support to the Development Department at the League of Conservation Voters. Lawrence graduated from the University of Florida with a BA in Political Science with minors in History and African Studies.
John Osterman manages the production of the Center's books, working papers, briefs, and other publications. A native of the metropolitan area, Osterman holds an MA in anthropology from the University of Virginia and a BA from the University of Mary Washington. Before his graduate studies, he was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Mauritania and worked in mid-Atlantic archaeology.
Jenny Ottenhoff serves as the Policy Outreach Associate at the Center for Global Development, where she focuses on global health, trade, food and agriculture, foreign assistance and fragile states. Before joining CGD, Ottenhoff worked at the George Washington University Center for Global Health where she managed communication and policy outreach activities and supported the development of health training programs in Bangladesh, China and Kenya. Previously she worked on HIV/AIDS policy at the UN World Food Programme and lead grassroots advocacy efforts against the use of child soldiers at Resolve Uganda and Invisible Children. Ottenhoff received an MPH with a concentration in global health from the George Washington University and graduated summa cum laude with a BA in psychology from North Carolina State University.
Steve is the Web Technology Manager for the Center for Global Development. He has experience designing and developing numerous web sites and web applications. Steve has a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Georgetown University and received his MBA from the University of Texas at Austin.
Beth Schwanke is the senior associate for policy outreach at CGD. Before joining CGD, she was an associate in the Federal Law and Policy group at the law firm DLA Piper and, from 2009 to 2010, the legislative counsel for Freedom Now. Schwanke earned her BA in English from Wellesley College and her JD from University of Michigan Law School, where she was an associate and contributing editor to the Michigan Law Review.
Finance and Administration Staff
Ellen Mackenzie is chief financial officer and director for operations at the Center for global Development. Mackenzie directs all of the organization’s administrative, accounting, budgeting, human resource, and information technology efforts. Before joining CGD in 2007, Mackenzie was the director of finance and operations at the Global Fund for Children. She has more than 15 years of experience working with nonprofit organizations.
Michael Brown is the manager of information technology at the Center for Global Development. Before joining CGD he worked with Aristotle International Inc. as director of information technology, overseeing IT operations for the company’s six offices. Before that, he worked with a number of technology startups specializing in shared webhosting. He is originally from Altamonte Springs, Florida, and has a BS in Information Systems Technology from the University of Central Florida.
Sam Reyes is the Systems Administrator at the Center for Global Development. He worked for eight years as a systems administrator in a nonprofit organization in Northern Virginia. Before joining CGD, he spent a year teaching in El Salvador. Reyes has BA in communications from George Mason University and a master's in Management Information Systems. Sam also volunteers his time working with At-Risk youths in Northern Virginia.
Charlie Rong is the office manager at the Center for Global Development. Prior to joining CGD, he worked at a visa agency helping clients secure visas and 3- step document authentication for use in China. In his spare time, Charlie tutors students in beginner’s Mandarin Chinese and volunteers for Food & Friends and DC Central Kitchen. Originally from Richmond, Virginia, Charlie graduated from Virginia Commonwealth University with a BS in biology and from George Mason with a BA in psychology.
Program Staff
Amanda Glassman is the Director of Global Health Policy and a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development. She has 20 years of experience working on health and social protection policy and programs in Latin America and elsewhere in the developing world. Prior to her current position, Glassman was principal technical lead for health at the Inter-American Development Bank, where she led health economics and financing knowledge products and policy dialogue with member countries. From 2005-2007, Glassman was deputy director of the Global Health Financing Initiative at Brookings and carried out policy research on aid effectiveness and domestic financing issues in the health sector in low-income countries.
Alexis Sowa is a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Development. She joined CGD in July, 2012 upon completion of the Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government. Previously, she worked as a governance advisor in Liberia with the Africa Governance Initiative. She also worked as program and policy Manager at Malaria No More UK where she identified, developed and managed investments in sub-Saharan Africa. She joined MNM UK after working at Google for over five years, where she held various roles including Head of the Quantitative Insights team for Europe, Middle East, and Africa. She started her career working as a health care consultant at The Permanente Medical Group. Sowa holds a BA in Human Biology and a minor in History from Stanford University.
Sarah Jane Staats
Director of Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Initiative
Sarah Jane Staats is director of CGD’s Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Initiative, a one-stop shop for information and policy analysis on the mission, mandate and organizational structure of US foreign aid and US global development policy. Staats has written on aid effectiveness, the US role in the international financial institutions, and the nexus of US development policy, advocacy and Congress. She previously served as CGD’s director of policy outreach where she led the Center’s engagement with the development policy community, especially senior staff in the U.S. Congress, the US administration and development advocacy NGOs. Staats previously worked at the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO); at InterAction, a coalition of 160 U.S.-based development and humanitarian NGOs; and with the ONE Campaign.
Julia Clark works with senior fellows Alan Gelb and David Roodman on biometric technology in the developing world and the Commitment to Development Index, respectively. Before coming to CGD, she earned her MA in Governance and Development from the Institute of Development Studies (IDS) at the University of Sussex, UK. At IDS, she completed her dissertation on the potential democratic impact of anti-regime bloggers in Cuba, and worked extensively on issues related to service delivery, social accountability, and inclusion in local governance. Clark previously worked at The Rotary Foundation, coordinating grants for community development, education and health projects in South Asia and the Middle East, and supervising oversight and evaluation activities. She received her BA in International Relations and Spanish from Tufts University.
Jenny Kendra is the Special Assistant to Owen Barder, Senior Fellow and Director for Europe. She is a graduate from Edinburgh University with an MA (Hons) in English Language and Spanish for which her thesis covered non-native language attitudes to different varieties of English. Jenny spent ten months collecting data in Buenos Aires, Argentina, teaching English to school children and as a translator before becoming a skills and research assistant at Newcastle University medical school. She went on to work for the UK Foreign and Commonwealth Office in the Protocol directorate as a Ceremonial Officer, overseeing and managing several events of national significance. Jenny supports the work of the Europe office and helps to manage events in the UK.
Kate McQueston joined CGD in June of 2011 as a program coordinator to the global health policy team. Before joining the Center, she received her MPH from Dartmouth College, where she researched cost-effectiveness and quality improvement in both clinical and global health settings. Additionally, she interned at the World Health Organization Regional Office for Europe, where her work focused on quality improvement techniques for use in HIV prevention. Previously, she worked as program assistant with the World Justice Project in Washington, DC. She received her B.A. from the University of Virginia.
Rita Perakis is a programme associate working on results-based aid initiatives including Development Impact Bonds and Cash on Delivery Aid. She is a co-author of the Quality of Official Development Assistance (QuODA) Assessment. Before joining CGD, Perakis earned a masters in public administration at Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, where she served as a consultant on an agribusiness development project for the Millennium Challenge Corporation and intern working on youth unemployment issues for the Education for Employment Foundation-Morocco. She previously held positions at Seedco, the Council on Foreign Relations, and the Carter Center. Perakis holds a BA in international studies from Emory University.
Emily Putze joined CGD in February 2011 and currently works on the Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Program. Prior to this position Putze served as the Special Assistant to CGD President Nancy Birdsall. She graduated from Middlebury College in 2009 with a B.A. in political science and minors in both economics and African affairs. At Middlebury, Putze completed an independent study program on the Millennium Development Goals in Africa in Limpopo, South Africa and wrote her honors thesis on the importance of local variables in community-based malaria prevention and control programs. Putze also served as the president of Middlebury’s ONE chapter and was recognized as one of the top 100 student leaders in the country fighting global poverty and AIDS. Before coming to CGD, Putze worked as a Research Assistant at the American Enterprise Institute, where she continued to do research on international health and development policy issues.
Sarah Rose is a senior policy analyst at the Center for Global Development, working on the Rethinking US Foreign Assistance Initiative. She joined CGD in this role in January 2013. Previously, Rose worked for the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) in Mozambique as a monitoring and evaluation specialist for the mission’s health team. Before that, she worked for the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) as a senior development policy officer, focusing largely on the process which selects countries as eligible for MCC funding. Rose also previously worked as a research assistant and policy analyst at CGD. She holds a Masters degree in public policy and a BS in foreign service, both from Georgetown University.
Marla Spivack is the program coordinator for CGD’s India Initiative and supports the work of senior fellow Michael Clemens. She holds a BA in economics and international relations from Tufts University. While there, Spivack studied the efficacy of a Kenyan NGO's HIV-education program and worked on a monitoring and evaluation strategy for an HIV-prevention campaign in Oakland, California. As an intern at Innovations for Poverty Action in Uganda, she managed the data collection for an RCT of a microsavings program.
Clare Waite is the head of external relations in Europe. She joins CGD after having worked at the International Federation of Gynecology and Obstetrics (FIGO) where she specialised in international safe motherhood projects. Before that, she worked for Marie Stopes International in various roles, including in programme management providing technical assistance and organizational support to partners in Asia, and for Amnesty International developing and implementing campaigning strategies on targeted human rights violations in Western European countries. She has also worked as a freelance consultant for Marie Stopes International Ethiopia (based in Ethiopia), for Development Initiatives (on an initiative aimed at accelerating poverty reduction by making aid more transparent) and for Penal Reform International. She holds a BA Hons in modern languages and contemporary history, and has a working knowledge of several European languages, including Italian, French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Research Assistants
Maria Alejandra Amado is a Research Assistant for Liliana Rojas-Suarez. Prior to joining CGD she worked as a program coordinator for the Universidad del Pacifico’s research center on macroeconomic and financial topics, where she served as an assistant of various projects related to the analysis of long term economic growth in Peru, and the impact of taxation in mining and oil sectors in Peru, a project sponsored by the IDB. She has also worked as an intern in the Economic Research area of the Superintendency of Banking and Insurance of Peru. Maria Alejandra earned a BA and a Master in Economics at Universidad del Pacifico. Her master’s thesis, on the macroeconomic impact of banking and monetary policy rules, has been presented in seminars at the Central Bank of Peru, and at the Uruguayan Central Bank.
Jessica Carsten supports the research of Todd Moss and Kate Almquist Knopf on topics including the nexus of development and security in West Africa, US foreign assistance reform in South Sudan, and interagency coordination in US development policy. Before joining CGD, she worked as an African Studies program associate at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies. Carsten was also an information technology consultant at the Center for Democratic Development and Coalition of Domestic Election Observers in Ghana. Originally from Northern California, Carsten graduated cum laude with a BA from University of California Santa Cruz and completed a thesis on the expansion of U.S. Africa Command in Africa’s Great Lakes region.
Ted Collins is a Research Assistant for Kim Elliott and William Savedoff. Prior to joining CGD, he was an Economist at the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Collins recently earned an M.S. in Applied Economics from Johns Hopkins University, where he was also an econometrics tutor and teaching assistant in Macroeconomics. He studied Mathematical Economics and English at Marquette University. During graduate school, Collins interned at CGD, supporting Liliana Rojas-Suarez’s research of International Capital Requirements and Financial Regulatory Reform.
Denizhan Duran works with research fellow Amanda Glassman, primarily focusing on priority-setting institutions, behavioral economics and aid effectiveness in global health. Originally from Istanbul, Turkey, Duran graduated cum laude from Middlebury College with a BA in economics and minors in political science and French. While at Middlebury, he wrote his honors thesis on evaluating the regional and gender-specific impact of the conditional cash transfer program in Turkey. He also spent a semester studying French and European Politics in Sciences Po, Paris.
Sarah Dykstra supports the research of Charles Kenny and Justin Sandefur. Before joining CGD, Dykstra worked as a project associate for Innovations for Poverty Action in Sierra Leone, where she managed a random impact evaluation of two health service delivery programs. Dykstra graduated from Boston University in May 2011 with a BA in global health and development; her thesis evaluates HIV/AIDS services in Malawi. Dykstra was also a summer intern in Syria working on an education initiative for Iraqi refugees.
Alice Lépissier coordinates the Europe Beyond Aid initiative and supports Alex Cobham on the Illicit Financial Flows initiative. She also supports the research of senior fellow Owen Barder and works on a climate change mitigation policy proposal. She previously served as a consultant on climate-change adaptation and interned at the African Secretariat of the International Council for Local Environmental Initiatives (ICLEI) in Cape Town. Originally from France, Lépissier holds a BA in European politics from University College London where she spent a year abroad at the Universidad Complutense de Madrid. She also holds an MSc in economics and public policy from Sciences Po and École Polytechnique, and an MSc in economic history from the London School of Economics.
Stephanie Majerowicz supports the research of Todd Moss. Originally from Bogotá, Colombia, Majerowicz graduated from Stanford University with a BA in political science and a minor in economics. At Stanford, Majerowicz served as a research assistant for various projects relating to conflict and rebel groups in Africa and Latin America, and received a grant to undertake an independent research project on democratic institutions and conflict in Lima, Perú. Before joining CGD, Majerowicz worked at the Inter-American Dialogue interning with their economics and trade program.
Will McKitterick works with Sarah Jane Staats on the Rethinking U.S. Foreign Assistance Program. Prior to being a research assistant, McKitterick was CGD's communications assistant. Before joining CGD, McKitterick worked as the communications and development intern at Jubilee USA, an advocacy network working to cancel the debt of heavily indebted poor countries. McKitterick graduated from Clark University in May 2010 with a BA in political science and a minor in international development. He also studied abroad for a year at the London School of Economics where he focused on foreign policy analysis and European political institutions.
Christian Meyer supports the research of Nancy Birdsall and Alan Gelb. Before joining CGD, he was a consultant for the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development, where he worked on private-sector development and foreign direct investment in Bhutan and Mongolia. Meyer previously worked with the European Commission, the German Ministry of Economics, the German Foreign Office, and a management consulting firm. Originally from Cologne, Germany, Meyer holds a BA in business administration from WHU Vallendar and a Masters in public policy from the Hertie School of Governance, Berlin. He also spent semesters abroad at the University of Western Ontario and Georgetown University.
Rachel Silverman works as a research assistant for the global health team. Prior to joining CGD in August 2011, Silverman spent two years with the National Democratic Institute, where she worked on democratic development initiatives in Kosovo and a program to increase political participation among Europe’s Roma minority. Previously, Silverman also served as a research assistant at Stanford University’s Center on Democracy, Development, and the Rule of Law, where she investigated the effect of international assistance on democratic transitions. Originally from the New York area, Silverman graduated from Stanford University in 2009 with a B.A. in International Relations and Economics.
Tejaswi Velayudhan supports the research of senior fellows Michael Clemens and Mead Over. She graduated from Wellesley College in 2010 with majors in mathematics and economics, and wrote her thesis on contraceptive choice and its effects on birth spacing among Bangladeshi and Indian women. At Wellesley, she served as both a tutor for an undergraduate econometrics class and as a research assistant for Prof. David Lindauer on his textbook Economics of Development. She also spent a year studying at the London School of Economics.
Interns
Molly Bloom assists in the research for CGD’s Data for African Development Working Group as a member of the global health policy team. She is currently a senior at Georgetown University, earning a BS in International Health and a certificate in Justice and Peace Studies. She recently returned from southern Tanzania, where she spent four months working for the German Development Cooperation (GIZ) on a rural newborn health program.
Cathy Kaplan supports the communications and outreach team. She is currently a senior at The George Washington University, pursuing a BA in International Affairs with concentrations in International Development and Sub-Saharan Africa. Prior to joining CGD, she interned at the UN World Food Programme, the Office of Congressman Joseph Crowley, and The Resolve. She recently returned from South Africa and Tanzania, where she spent nine months volunteering at primary health care centers and writing her thesis on refugee access to healthcare.
atung@cgdev.org
Anita Tung supports the research of Liliana Rojas-Suarez on topics including financial system stability and global financial crises. Prior to joining CGD, she was a consultant at the IFC, where she analyzed developmental impact of the IFC investments. Anita previously worked with an emerging market private equity fund in DC and a venture capital firm in Taiwan. Originally from Taiwan, she holds a BA in International Relations from National Chengchi University. She recently graduated from Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS), where she specialized in International Finance and Energy, Resources and Environment.