​I am a Senior Research Fellow in the Poverty, Gender, and Inclusion unit
at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
           
            Twitter: @leightjessica
            LinkedIn: @jessicaleight
            Email: [email protected]
            Google Scholar
            Curriculum Vitae




Previously, I served as an assistant professor of economics at American University (2017-2019) and at Williams College (2013-2017).  I received my PhD in Economics from MIT in 2013 and previously received a MPhil with Distinction in Economics at Oxford University as a Rhodes Scholar in 2008 and a B.A., summa cum laude and phi beta kappa, in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University in 2006.

My research agenda focuses on questions related to agriculture, social protection and fraduation models, gender, and structural transformation, and has been funded by the Macarthur Foundation, the Fondation de France, USAID, the Department of Labor, and a number of other donors. I have conducted or am actively conducting fieldwork in Nigeria, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, India, Cambodia, Kenya, Burkina Faso, Somalia, and Mozambique.

I am also engaged in a wide set of mentoring and leadership roles within development economics.  I am a mentor with GAIN and am a mentoring co-coordinator with AMIE.  I have curated the "cool young researcher" series in development economics on social media for four years, and previously developed a mentor / mentee matching service to provide PhD students in low- and middle-income countries with feedback on their research papers.  I have also co-organized the Structural Transformation and Growth brown bag seminar for PhD student grantees.

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Clockwise from top left: SPIR households, Ethiopia; students in Mozambique; women in Baidoa, Somalia; girls served by Room to Read in Rajasthan, India; Unite for a Better Life, Ethiopia; SELEVER households, Burkina Faso