Rachel Glennerster

Rachel Glennerster is Executive Director of the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL), a research center at the Economics Department at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Her research includes randomized evaluations of community driven development, the adoption of new agricultural technologies, and improving the accountability of politicians in Sierra Leone; empowerment of adolescent girls in Bangladesh; the behavioral economics of complying with tuberculosis medication in Pakistan; and health, governance, education, and microfinance programs in India. She serves as Scientific Director for J-PAL Africa, Co-Chair of J-PAL's Agriculture Program, and is a board member of the Agricultural Technology Adoption Initiative (ATAI). She is lead academic for Sierra Leone for the International Growth Center. Between 2007 and 2010 she served on the UK Department for International Development's (DFID) Independent Advisory Committee on Development Impact.

Rachel Glennerster helped establish Deworm the World, which has helped deworm 23 million children worldwide. Before joining J-PAL, she worked at the IMF and Her Majesty's Treasury. She has a PhD in economics from Birkbeck College, University of London, and is coauthor of Strong Medicine: Creating Incentives for Pharmaceutical Research on Neglected Diseases and Running Randomized Evaluations: A Practical Guide.