Speakers and moderators: Day 3 of the Global Impact Evaluation Forum

Douglas MacKay is an Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He holds a PhD in Philosophy from the University of Toronto and spent two years as a post-doctoral fellow in the Department of Bioethics at the National Institutes of Health. He works on the ethics of human subjects' research with a focus on the ethical design of experiments in public policy and economics. He is the co-editor (with Ana Iltis) of the recently published The Oxford Handbook of Research Ethics. 

Monica Lambon-Quayefio is an applied microeconomist whose broad research focuses on gender and labour markets, social protection, education and digital innovations in agriculture. Her most recent work is focused on collaboration and networking among female entrepreneurs, online matching platforms and labour markets, gender and social protection, and digitized credit and bundled services for small holder farmers. She is a JPAL Affiliate and a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Economics at the University of Ghana. She holds a PhD in Economics from Clark University in Massachusetts (USA) where she also obtained her master’s degree in economics. Her B.A. was obtained in Economics with Mathematics from

the University of Ghana.

Amber Peterman is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Public Policy at the University of North Carolina Chapel Hill and technical lead for the UNICEF Evaluation Office impact catalyst fund on child marriage and social norms. Her work focuses on the intersection of gender and development, with an emphasis on violence against women and children. She is currently an affiliated researcher with the Transfer Project, a non-resident fellow with the Center for Global Development and an affiliated researcher with J-PAL. She previously worked as a Social Policy Specialist at UNICEF Office of Research—Innocenti and as a Research Fellow at the International Food Policy Research Institute in Washington, D.C., Kampala, and Dakar. 

Ana Garcia Hernandez is the Associate Director of Policy at J-PAL Europe, leading efforts to promote evidence-based decision-making by connecting governments, donors, and researchers. She previously worked in the partnership between J-PAL Europe, Spain's Ministry of Inclusion, Social Security, and Migration, and CEMFI in the Inclusion Policy Lab in Spain. Before joining J-PAL, Ana led randomized evaluations on women’s political participation, girls' education, and research ethics across Colombia, Uganda and Zambia. She holds a PhD in Economics from NOVA SBE, an MSc from Barcelona School of Economics, and a BSc from Carlos III University. 

Indran A. Naidoo, PhD, is a globally recognized thought leader. Manager, author, and instructor, Indran spearheads international reform initiatives, transforming oversight functions. He is the Director of the Independent Office of Evaluation of IFAD, and former Director of the Independent Evaluation Office of UNDP. Previous roles included that of Deputy Director-General of M&E at the independent Public Service Commission and M&E Director at the Department of Land Affairs. He served as Vice-Chair of UNEG for six years and was an instructor at the International Program for Development Evaluation Training. He holds a DPhil and post-graduate degree in Geography and Education and is the recipient of numerous awards. International journals document his work and accolades. 

Shannon Shisler leads the production of various synthesis products, including systematic reviews, evidence and gap maps, reviews of reviews and rapid evidence assessments in a variety of topics such as women’s empowerment, immunization, migration, agricultural markets, food security, sexual and reproductive health, and anaemia. She has over two decades of experience and is an expert in quantitative methodologies, including meta-analysis, and provides training on synthesis methods. She holds a PhD and MA in Educational Psychology and Quantitative Methods from the University at Buffalo. She is also an editor of the Campbell Collaboration International Development Coordinating Group.

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Kerry Albright is a social and political scientist with over 25 years of experience in international development and evidence-informed decision-making. In September 2022, she took up a position as Deputy Director/Principal Adviser-Evaluation with UNICEF’s Evaluation Office based in New York.

Prior to this, she was Deputy Director ad interim and Chief of Research Facilitation and Knowledge Management of UNICEF’s Office of Research-Innocenti, based in Florence, Italy, where she was responsible for research oversight and capacity-building across UNICEF’s 190+ offices worldwide. A long-term advocate of evidence-informed decision-making, while at Innocenti she introduced structured evidence synthesis capacity and strengthened a global ethics in evidence generation. She also enhanced attention to evidence uptake and impact measurement and designed various global capacity-strengthening products and trainings to help build evidence literacy and critical thinking skills across UNICEF.

Before joining UNICEF in 2015, Kerry worked for the UK Government’s Department for International Development (DFID, now FCDO), where she co-founded the Global Open Data for Agriculture and Nutrition (GODAN) initiative alongside the US and Dutch Governments. Prior to this, she established and led a new Evidence Into Action Unit in FCDO’s Research & Evidence Division – a multidisciplinary team specializing in research uptake and impact, evidence-brokering and capacity-strengthening across the organization. She also oversaw a portfolio of programmes aiming to strengthen science-communication, evidence-brokering and capacity for evidence-informed policymaking with science journalists, parliamentarians, researchers, policymakers and other evidence-brokering intermediaries. She has lived and worked widely across sub-Saharan Africa and South/South-East Asia.

In other professional capacities, Kerry is currently UNICEF’s institutional representative and Co-Chair (with USAID) of the Multi-Donor Learning Partnership for Development Impact, the Co-Lead (with UNDP) of the Global SDG Synthesis Coalition, the founding member and Co-Chair of the Campbell Collaboration’s, Children and Young Persons Wellbeing Coordinating Group and a member of the Governance Council for the Alliance for Living Evidence (ALIVE). In 2021, she was invited to be a Commissioner on the Global Commission on Evidence to Address Societal Challenges and is now a member of their Implementation Council.

Aprille Knox is a Senior Policy Manager at J-PAL Global, where she manages the Crime, Violence, and Conflict sector. As a member of the Policy group, she works with governments, NGOs, academics, and others to build research partnerships and promote evidence-informed policymaking. Prior to joining J-PAL in 2017, Aprille worked as a Graduate Research Assistant for Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA) in Monrovia, Liberia, developing evaluation materials and training enumerators for a variety of randomized evaluations. She also worked as a member of the governance team at Results for Development (R4D) and served as a Public Health Educator with the United States Peace Corps in Guinea. Aprille holds a master's degree in global affairs from Yale University's Jackson Institute for Global Affairs and a BA in International Studies from Boston College.

Anne-Claire Luzot is Director of Evaluation at the World Food Programme, a position she has held since 2023. She first joined WFP’s Office of Evaluation in 2006. During her career with WFP, she has spearheaded the use of evaluation evidence across the organization’s programmes and operations and led the launch of the decentralized evaluation function. She was also instrumental in developing the 2016 and 2022 evaluation policies.

Prior to joining WFP, Anne-Claire was an evaluator in both the humanitarian and development sectors. She served as regional evaluation advisor in UNICEF and as chief evaluation officer at the World Health Organization. She was vice-chair of the United Nations Evaluation Group from 2019 to 2023. Anne-Claire is a Belgian national and holds a master’s degree in rural development from Sussex University in the UK, as well as a master’s in economics and social science from Namur University in Belgium.

Thomas Kelly leads 3ie’s agenda to strengthen evidence cultures and develop practical solutions to facilitate evidence use.  Thomas has more than 25 years as an executive, researcher and practitioner working to bring evidence to bear on efforts to improve development outcomes. Previously, he served as the Deputy Vice President for the Department of Policy and Evaluation at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and has taught at universities in Kenya, Mexico and the United States.

Robert McCouch took up his position as the UNICEF Director of Evaluation in August 2021.

Mr. McCouch has served in a variety of evaluation roles in the UN system, including UNICEF, over the past 15 years. He was recently the Chief Evaluation Officer at the World Health Organization, prior to which he was the Chief of Section in the evaluation division of the United Nations Office of Internal Oversight Services (OIOS). From 2009-2013, as Senior Evaluation Specialist in the UNICEF Evaluation Office, he was responsible for the Organization’s large portfolio of evaluations focused on humanitarian action.

His career prior to joining the UN system was in the field of data analytics and policy and opinion research in the private sector. He was the Director of Research and Evaluation at the Harvard Medical School, covering a range of innovative programmes aimed at improving psychosocial, academic and health outcomes in highly vulnerable children.

Mr. McCouch received a PhD in social policy from Brandeis University, with a specialization in child, youth and family policy, and a post-doctorate in child-centered evaluation methods from Harvard Medical School and the Harvard University Graduate School of Education. He holds a Cand. scient. pol. degree in political science and political psychology from the University of Copenhagen, an M.A. in foreign languages from Middlebury College in Vermont, and a B.A. in international affairs from the George Washington University in Washington, DC.

He is a US national and speaks English, Danish, German, French and Italian.

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Anne-Claire Luzot is Director of Evaluation at the World Food Programme, a position she has held since 2023. She first joined WFP’s Office of Evaluation in 2006. During her career with WFP, she has spearheaded the use of evaluation evidence across the organization’s programmes and operations and led the launch of the decentralized evaluation function. She was also instrumental in developing the 2016 and 2022 evaluation policies.

Prior to joining WFP, Anne-Claire was an evaluator in both the humanitarian and development sectors. She served as regional evaluation advisor in UNICEF and as chief evaluation officer at the World Health Organization. She was vice-chair of the United Nations Evaluation Group from 2019 to 2023. Anne-Claire is a Belgian national and holds a master’s degree in rural development from Sussex University in the UK, as well as a master’s in economics and social science from Namur University in Belgium.