Expert

Robin Hayes is a monitoring and evaluation specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this role, Hayes provides technical assistance and develops capacity among partners in evaluation design, survey development, statistical analysis, and process monitoring. She has particular expertise in developing gender sensitive monitoring and evaluation tools for projects focused on adolescents, health, and violence against women. 

Hayes has more than 13 years of international and domestic experience in research and programs. Prior to joining ICRW, she worked as a Climate Change Researcher and Energy Policy Analyst with SAIC; a Program Coordinator with USAID’s US-Asia Environmental Partnership in Bangkok, Thailand; a Public Health Volunteer in Cochabamba, Bolivia; and a Peace Corps volunteer in Samoa. 

Hayes received the George Washington University’s Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics Practicum Research Fellowship Award for her research on alcohol use and HIV risk behaviors in a low-income neighborhood in Windhoek, Namibia.

Payal Patel is a gender and development specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this role, Payal conducts gender-analytical research and program evaluation in the areas of women and technology, enterprise development, women’s property rights and agriculture. 

Patel has expertise in research, monitoring and evaluation and capacity building related to women’s economic livelihoods and community development. She has published several papers on the role of technology, including mobile phones and the Internet, in strengthening women’s economic and entrepreneurial opportunities. Prior to joining ICRW, Patel worked as a consultant with CARE to evaluate the effects of an agricultural marketing and capacity development project in Uganda on the empowerment of women farmers and the sustainability of farmers’ market linkages. She also has experience building the capacity of local development NGOs in India and Guatemala in data collection and reporting.  

Ellen Weiss is senior technical advisor for research utilization and development at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this role, Weiss provides technical review, writing and editing of research reports, articles for peer-reviewed journals, blogs, web-based stories, presentations and grant proposals across ICRW’s four portfolios: Global Health; Gender, Violence and Rights; Economic Development; and Gender, Population and Development. She also is responsible for the technical and ethical review of all research protocols prior to submission to ICRW’s Institutional Review Board.   

Weiss has more than 20 years of experience in HIV/AIDS research and programming, including as co-director of ICRW’s groundbreaking Women and AIDS Research Program.  Prior to joining ICRW, she was the Latin American Regional Coordinator for FHI 360’s AIDSTECH Program. She is the author of numerous publications on gender and HIV, stigma and discrimination, women’s health, violence against women and gender equality.   

Allison M. Glinski is a Gender and Development Specialist at ICRW, where she conducts research, programs and advocacy related to adolescent girls, population and development, reproductive health and family planning, monitoring and evaluation, and women and technology. She has provided technical assistance to partners by creating M&E systems for grantees and assessing programs’ gender-specific impact. She has conducted research on a series of population and development related topics including women’s demand for contraception, child marriage, and the links between adolescent girls’ education and successful transitions to adulthood. Specifically, she has conducted several research initiatives that aim to improve the lives of adolescent girls by assessing programs that have successfully delayed marriage and childbearing to mobilize funding, commitment, and action on girls' education, empowerment, and reproductive health. Prior to joining ICRW, Allison worked with the International Medical Corps where she provided research, monitoring and evaluation, project management, and technical support to nutrition, sanitation, HIV/AIDS, and maternal health projects. Allison also served as an AmeriCorps volunteer where she created and taught health classes to elementary and middle school students, as well as researched, compiled, and presented educational information for families regarding energy, housing, and healthcare assistance.

Lyric Thompson is a policy advocate and special assistant to the president at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this capacity she provides technical and substantive guidance to the President on various topics relating to gender and development; conducts advocacy on a range of issues, including as co-chair of the Girls Not Brides USA coalition; and has conducted fieldwork on gender-responsive urban development in slum communities of Mumbai, India.

Thompson brings expertise in policy advocacy and communications on such issues as women, peace and security; violence against women; and women’s economic empowerment, and has advocated for gender-equitable policies at the United Nations, White House, State Department and on Capitol Hill. She is a women’s issues expert and blogger for TrustLaw Women, a project of the Thomson-Reuters Foundation and a primary expert and strategist for Amnesty International USA’s women’s human rights program. In 2012 she served as a leadership and empowerment expert on the selection committee for the Women Deliver Top 50 Innovations and Ideas that Deliver for Women. In 2011, Diplomatic Courier Magazine named her among the Top 99 Under 33 Young Professionals Impacting Foreign Policy.

Prior to joining ICRW, Thompson served as Senior Policy Analyst and External Relations Officer at Women for Women International, where she advised officials at the White House, State Department and Department of Defense officials in the crafting of the United States’ first-ever National Action Plan on Women, Piece and Security. Prior to this, she worked on USAID-funded conflict mitigation and democratic governance projects in Sudan and Serbia for Development Alternatives, Inc. (DAI), where she conducted fieldwork on post-conflict reconstruction efforts in Sudan.

Nitin Datta is technical specialist at the International Center for Research on Women's (ICRW) Asia Regional Office where he is responsible for the quantitative research activities for the IMPACCT project and also provides technical support for qualitative research. Datta works closely with research partner agencies for implementing the IMPACCT project.

Datta has worked as technical support on various research and evaluation projects in areas of maternal and child health, HIV/AIDS and reproductive health. Datta specializes in monitoring and evaluation of health programs, including developing MIS system, research designs, data management and analysis. He has experience using both quantitative and qualitative research methodologies and software programs like SPSS, STATA, ATLAS TI. Prior to joining ICRW, he has worked for FHI360 (CDC-funded project on strategic information with NACO), Population Council (Gates Foundation-RMNCHN project), Futures Group (USAID-funded ITAP project on family planning, maternal and child health) and IIM Bangalore-UCSF collaborative research study (National Institute of Child Health and Human Development funded SAMATA Health study on HIV and gender based violence). As MPhil candidate, Datta collected and analyzed data on prostate cancer patients from hospital and Mumbai cancer registry.

Brian Heilman (MALD) is a Gender and Evaluation Specialist at the International Center for Research on Women. Heilman has seven years of experience in both the practice and evaluation of international efforts to promote gender equality and eliminate violence against women, with particular expertise in promoting adolescent girls' access to quality education and in developing inclusive approaches to prevent violence against women before it happens.

Prior to joining ICRW in 2010, Heilman participated in the American India Foundation's Clinton Fellowship for Service in India, overseeing the creation of learning centers in ten villages in rural West Bengal. In addition to three years living and working in India, Heilman has worked on issues of gender in sub-Saharan Africa and the Pacific.

Dr. Suzanne Petroni is senior director of gender, population and development at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW), where she leads the organization’s research and programs on reproductive health and rights, as well as gender and population dynamics, such as fertility rates, marriage patterns and urbanization.

Prior to joining ICRW, Petroni was the Vice President of Global Health at the Public Health Institute. There, she expanded the organization’s global health engagement through research, program and policy work. She also acted as the organization’s spokesperson and liaison on global health issues with governments, the media, federal agencies, private foundations, non-profit organizations, universities and other outlets.

Prior to that, Petroni was Senior Program Officer at the Summit Foundation, leading the foundation’s Global Population and Youth Leadership Program by designing and implementing grant-making strategies to mobilize support for sexual and reproductive health in the developing world. While at Summit, Petroni also served as Chair of the Funders Network on Population, Reproductive Health & Rights, and as chair of an international donor group on adolescent reproductive health and development. At the U.S. State Department from 1997-2001, Petroni worked in the offices of the Under Secretary for Global Affairs and Population, Refugees and Migration