Expert

Krista Jacobs is a senior economist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this role, Jacobs develops capacity building and monitoring and evaluation tools that bring a gender lens to issues related to land, property, agriculture and food security.

Jacobs has more than six years of experience researching the interaction of gender, poverty, health and agricultural development. Jacobs measures the social and economic circumstances of girls and women through surveys and impact analyses. Before joining ICRW in 2008, she was as a fellow at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Global AIDS Program. She also served as a research collaborator at the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and as a research manager at a food and nutrition project in Ghana, lead by IFPRI and the United Nations Children’s Fund.

Anne Marie Golla is senior economist and evaluation specialist at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this role, Golla leads impact evaluations of projects aimed at economically empowering women and provides technical assistance on economic and evaluation issues.  

Golla has more than 15 years of experience in monitoring and evaluation and in research of women and work, food security, and poverty. Prior to joining ICRW in 2007, Golla conducted research on food security issues in the United States for the Economic Research Service of the United States Department of Agriculture. Earlier, she oversaw the design and monitoring of economic and rural development projects for CARE International.

Golla has worked on projects in Latin America, Southeast Asia, Africa and Eastern Europe, and has extensive experience in Russia, Central Asia and the Transcaucasus region. Golla has held teaching positions at Georgetown University and the University of Maryland at College Park.

Jeffrey Edmeades is a social demographer at the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). In this role, Edmeades manages a variety of projects in which he provides technical assistance to partners, designs and conducts program evaluations and executes data analysis. His research primarily focuses on the interaction between the development process and demographic behavior, including fertility, contraceptive use and migration as well as household decision-making processes and the role gender norms play in shaping demographic outcomes.

Edmeades, who joined ICRW in 2006, brings years of experience in studying the effects of rural poverty, gender inequality and reproductive health patterns in the developing world. He also has published a number of peer-reviewed papers that address research methodology and the determinants of reproductive behavior and intimate partner violence, among other topics. His work has appeared in academic publications such as Demography, Social Science and Medicine, Studies in Family Planning and the Journal of Mixed Method Research.

Edmeades has extensive international experience in a number of countries including Canada, Mexico, Ghana, Thailand, England, Ethiopia and New Zealand.

Madhumita Das is a senior technical specialist at the International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) Asia Regional Office. In this capacity, she manages and provides technical support for several projects. Her responsibilities include conceptual and instrument design, program design, training and capacity building, data management and analysis, monitoring and evaluation, dissemination of project results and liaising with donors.

Das has more than 10 years of academic research experience. Prior to joining ICRW, Das was as a senior program specialist at Constella Futures, where she worked on program management, operations research and communications for a project to provide reproductive and child health services in India. Das also worked at the Population Council and as a consultant for Johns Hopkins University.

Nandita Bhatla is a senior technical specialist at the International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) Asia Regional Office. In this role, she directs and contributes to projects that strive to reduce violence against women and promote gender equity, all of which incorporate a focus on involving men and boys towards that end. Bhatla's work has included evaluating the effectiveness of India’s groundbreaking national anti-domestic violence legislation and analyzing the links between violence and other development concerns, such as HIV and women’s property rights.

Prior to joining ICRW in 2000, Bhatla was a consultant for Sama, a women-focused health resource group. She also worked as a project coordinator and trainer at Nirantar, a nongovernmental organization that addresses gender, education and health. In these positions, Bhatla researched, designed and implemented programs specializing in issues of gender, empowerment and social change. Her experience also includes developing and disseminating communication materials and curricula, and conducting participatory trainings in her areas of expertise.

Pranita Achyut is a senior adolescent and gender specialist at the International Center for Research on Women’s (ICRW) Asia Regional Office. Her responsibilities include providing project management support and designing studies in the areas of education, reproductive health and violence against women.

Achyut brings 12 years of programming and research experience in reproductive and child health, HIV/AIDS, nutrition and girls’ education. Prior to joining ICRW, she worked with organizations such as the United Nations Children’s Fund, the World Bank and the National Institute of Health and Family Welfare. In these positions, Achyut provided technical and managerial support in planning, capacity building and monitoring and evaluation for various health interventions. Achyut also has worked extensively with Indian state and district health program managers, medical colleges, nongovernmental organizations and other community- level organizations.