I am an Austrian-Ugandan kick-boxing, feminist urban economist, passionate about evidence-based impact and the power of cities. Most importantly I am the mother of a fiercely amazing little girl.

I have lived in 10 countries, across 4 continents and worked in countless others to date.

My work spans research and practice, and I am currently based out of Hong Kong, but working globally. Throughout my career, I have worked extensively supporting evidence-based policy reform in various government and non-governmental organisations. My focus is municipal and infrastructure finance as well as urban economic development and strategic planning for cities more broadly – always with the perspective of creating inclusive spaces for all.

Previously I worked in a number of leadership and management positions including as the Policy Director at the International Growth Centre (IGC). In this position, I led the high-level country and global engagements of the IGC translating research in economic growth to policy impact. I also led IGC’s cities work as the Head of the Cities that Work Initiative and the Senior Economist for Cities.

Prior to joining the IGC, I worked for Innovations for Poverty Action as well as for Evidence Action, which included work on evidence-based impact through randomised-control trial research and evaluations as well as scaling successful interventions in Uganda, Rwanda and Malawi. I have further lived and worked in rural South Sudan as an analyst on a large-scale agriculture project as well as in Kenya as an Economist (ODI Fellow) in the Ministry of East African Community. At the start of my career I worked in the NGO sector in Senegal, Kenya, Uganda and Washington D.C.

I hold an MSc in Public Financial Management from SOAS, University of London, an MA in International Economics and International Development from Johns Hopkins University (in Italy and the USA) and BSc from the University of Warwick (UK). During my undergraduate degree I also spent a year studying at the Universidad Carlos III de Madrid (Spain).

Although most of my publications can be viewed on this Publications page, here I want to highlight that I am a proud contributing author to the anthology Feminist Parenting, Perspectives from Africa and Beyond. My work in urbanisation space was recognised in 2016 by the University of Cape Town where I was nominated as one of Africa’s Young Leaders. In 2020, my alma mater, Johns Hopkins University awarded me with their Outstanding Recent Graduate Award.