The Team
Executive Directors
Stephen Davenport is Co-Executive Director of AidData and Senior Director for Business Development, Innovation and Partnerships at Development Gateway. Steve has worked at Development Gateway since 2001 and has extensive experience designing aid management systems and tools for governments, particularly in Africa. Prior to joining Development Gateway, he worked with the World Bank, IBM, Computer Associates, and BearingPoint, developing technology solutions for the public and private sector. He holds a master's degree in international business administration from Georgetown University, and a bachelor's degree from Washington and Lee University.
Brad Parks is Co-Executive Director of AidData, Research Faculty at the College of William and Mary's Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations, and a PhD candidate at the London School of Economics and Political Science. Previously, Brad served as an Associate Director of Development Policy at the Millennium Challenge Corporation. He has written and contributed to several books and articles on international political economy, global environmental politics, and the allocation and efficacy of foreign assistance. He holds a BA in International Relations from the College of William and Mary and an MSc in Development Management from the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Staff
Development Gateway
Sebastian Dimunzio leads the software development team. Previously, he developed software for the Aid Management Platform (AMP) at Development Gateway. He has more than 10 years developing software and has worked in Gedas / T-Systems, Motorola Argentina, and other local enterprises.
Brian Hammond is a Senior Advisor to Development Gateway and AidData, in particular advising on the partnership with the OECD. Brian has had links to Development Gateway since its founding in 2000, chairing its Aid Effectiveness Steering Committee and helping in the creation of AiDA and the AMP program. He currently chairs the IATI Technical Advisory Group. He was formerly Head of the Statistics and Monitoring Division in the OECD-DAC Secretariat and prior to that worked for the UK Department of International Development, first as a statistician and then as head of information systems. He has a bachelor’s degree in economics and statistics from Exeter University.
Gabriel Inchauspe is a software developer on the AidData team. He previously served as a software developer on the Aid Management Platform, and has over 10 years of experience as a systems engineer and analyst. Prior to joining Development Gaeway, Gabriel worked for Gameloft, Vates S.A., Promecor S.A. and All Technology, among others. He holds degrees as both a systems engineer and systems analyst from Universidad Tecnologica Nacional.
Gerald Mutuhu works as a software developer. Previously, he developed mobility solutions for various organizations. He holds a BSc in Computer Science from Maseno University (Kenya).
Christian Peratsakis is a Technical Associate at Development Gateway where he works primarily on AidData. He focuses on project management, technical implementation, and product innovation. He holds a BA from the College of William & Mary, and a Master's degree in Public Policy with a focus on international development from the University of Texas.
Aldo Picca is one of the leads of the AidData software development team. Aldo has over twelve years of software development and project management experience using a variety of technology solutions (JAVA, .NET, PHP). He holds a degree in systems engineering from the Universidad Tecnologica Nacional in Córdoba, Argentina, and is currently pursuing his MBA.
Josh Powell is a Business Development Associate at Development Gateway who works primarily on AidData. Josh focuses on implementing projects related to geocoding, aid effectiveness, transparency, and innovation. He holds a BS in finance from the University of Baltimore and a master's degree in public policy with an emphasis on international development from Brigham Young University.
College of William and Mary
Samantha Custer is Director of Communications and Policy Outreach at AidData. Samantha brings to AidData a diversified portfolio of experience in promoting good governance that cuts across traditional boundaries between academia, policy and practice. She has advised on education and language policy in Southeast Asia with SIL International, overseeing two country offices and coordinating the advocacy efforts of the Bangkok Multilingual Education Working Group for UNESCO. With Save the Children, Samantha conducted performance audits for sponsorship-funded programs in Latin America. Actively involved in research and academia, she has co-authored several World Bank papers on open data and citizen feedback with the Open Development Technology Alliance, as well as assisting former US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright to teach a class on US Foreign Policy. Samantha holds masters degrees in Foreign Service and Public Policy, graduating with highest distinction from Georgetown University.
Albert Decatur is AidData's Geospatial Database Analyst at the College of William and Mary. He has taught courses and workshops in open source GIS and has experience in database management and systems and network administration. Albert is proficient in the shell, Perl, SQL, and R programming languages. His past projects include creating the methods to map 4.5 billion pixels worth of land-cover for suburban Boston, selecting 10,000 households for a team of social scientists to survey, measuring vegetation damage due to northern hemisphere hurricanes and typhoons between 2002 and 2010, and creating a database of historical Russian weather. Albert received his B.A. in Geography from Clark University in Massachusetts.
Carrie Dolan is the Global Health Technical Grant Writer for AidData. Carrie is also a Research Fellow in Public Policy at the College of William & Mary. She received her MPH from Tulane in 2005 and is currently pursuing her PhD in Healthcare Policy and Research at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dolan has over 10 years of experience in the use of spatial tools such as geographic information systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and spatial analysis. She has written several articles on methods and techniques that utilize geocoded data to examine health outcomes. Dolan has collaborated with health development projects to use spatial data in several countries including Kenya, Zambia, Mexico, Botswana, Ghana, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
Suzannah Dunbar is the Special Assistant to AidData's Executive Director at the College of William and Mary, and assists with monitoring and evaluation and program management. She comes to AidData after two years at the US Agency for International Development (USAID), most recently as a Monitoring and Evaluation Consultant for the Office of HIV/AIDS at USAID/Namibia, and previously as the Special Assistant to the Chief Economist at USAID headquarters in DC. She holds a BSBA in International Business and a BA in Russian Studies from the Ohio State University.
Daniel Gamboa is a Visiting Research Associate at AidData. His responsibilities include research and collaboration with emerging development partners. Daniel holds a BA in international relations from Fray Bartolome de las Casas University, and an MA in international development cooperation from Instituto Mora in Mexico
Robert Mosolgo is currently an AidData Project Manager at W&M's Institute for Theory and Practice of International Relations. His responsibilities include data acquisition, integration, quality assurance, and management. He also oversees AidData-related software development and acts as the technical liaison between the participating university research teams and the software development teams at Development Gateway. Robert received his BA in East Asian Studies from the College of William and Mary. He is proficient in SQL (including database administration and optimization), HTML/CSS, JavaScript (jQuery, D3, AJAX), and PHP, and has experience in systems administration and networking in Windows and Linux.
Doug Nicholson is currently an AidData Post-Baccalaureate Fellow at W&M's Institute for Theory and Practice of International Relations. He manages all data collection, coding, cleaning, and arbitration activities at W&M. He also facilitates independent research and student-faculty research opportunities for more than 40 AidData student research assistants and interns. He holds a BA in Economics and Neuroscience from the College of William and Mary.
Brian O'Donnell is currently an AidData Project Manager at W&M's Institute for Theory and Practice of International Relations. He oversees AidData's work with non-traditional development finance agencies, and assists with grant writing, blogging, and outreach to the research community. Brian previously served as an AidData Post-Baccalaureate Fellow. He holds a BA in Government and Literary and Cultural Studies from the College of William and Mary.
Ian Reese is a GIS Analyst for AidData at the College of William and Mary. The primary component of Ian’s work consists of translating AidData’s geocoded data sets into visually appealing maps used for research and web applications. He also works with students and faculty developing maps for ArcGIS Online and prepares geocoded data for GIS use. Ian has a Master of Science in Landscape Architecture from the Pennsylvania State University and has written a thesis researching Smart Growth practices in shrinking cities using ArcGIS. Past GIS projects for Ian include: wind farming analyses, three dimensional modeling for urban wind flow, and LiDAR to CAD conversion for the Sustainable Landscape Practices Demonstration Garden at the Virginia Tech Agricultural Extension.
Sam Sadle is the AidData Research Consortium Coordinator. Previously, Sam served as the Assistant Director for Energy and the Environment at the Atlantic Council of the United States. Sam has also worked in the international political field for Chevron, the Open Society Institute, and the U.S Department of State among others. Sam also has extensive experience working on Democratic election campaigns. Sam holds a MS in Foreign Service from Georgetown University and a BA in International Relations from The George Washington University.
Alena Stern is an AidData Project Manager at the College of William & Mary's Institute for Theory and Practice of International Relations. Her responsibilities include donor relations, program management, and monitoring and evaluation. Prior to joining AidData, Alena worked as an Associate at Chemonics International. Alena received her BA in International Relations and Economics from the College of William and Mary.
Austin Strange is a Research Associate at AidData, where he helps lead a media-based data collection (MBDC) initiative cataloguing China's aid and investment activities in Africa. Currently based in Beijing, China, he is also a Researcher for the U.S. Naval War College's China Maritime Studies Institute. Strange received a BA in Economics and Chinese from The College of William & Mary in May 2012, and his research interests lie at the intersection of international development, Chinese political economy, energy security and military development.
David Trichler is Director of Operations at AidData's William & Mary office. He is responsible for the day-to-day management of AidData programs and partnerships at the College of William & Mary's Institute for Theory and Practice of International Relations. Previously, David served as Special Assistant to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and Special Assistant to the USAID's Chief Economist as a Presidential Management Fellow. He holds a master's degree in foreign relations from Georgetown University (graduating with highest distinction), during which time he worked as faculty assistant to Secretary Madeleine K. Albright and as researcher for former USAID Administrator Andrew Natsios. David also served as an adviser to the ExxonMobil Foundation and as a consultant for the World Bank. Prior to his time at Georgetown, David worked as a development adviser mapping micro-credit and community network for projects in Namibia, Morocco, Brazil and Bolivia. In his spare time, he enjoys river rafting while perusing the Economist. David is fortuitously married to his dream girl, and received his bachelor's degree from Brigham Young University, graduating Valedictorian.
Rachel Trichler is a Senior Program Manager and Monitoring and Evaluation Specialist at AidData. Rachel previously worked at the World Bank, where she focused on maternal and child health as part of the Independent Evaluation Group’s impact evaluation team. At AidData, she will oversee work with the Canadian International Development Agency related to nutrition resource tracking and provide leadership on a range of monitoring and evaluation issues. Previously, Rachel has supported various M&E activities for the U.S. Government at Social Impact, contributed to quantitative and economic analysis at the Millennium Challenge Corporation, and provided recommendations to improve an HIV/AIDS community action program in South Africa. Rachel holds a master’s degree from the Georgetown Public Policy Institute, where she served as Executive Print Editor of the Georgetown Public Policy Review.
Brigham Young University
Peter Carroll writes grants and manages research projects for AidData and for the Political Economy and Development Lab at Brigham Young University. He received a B.A. in Political Science from BYU. He will be starting a doctorate program in Political Science at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor in Fall 2013.
Kellie Daniels oversees the grants and budget for the Political Economy and Development Lab at Brigham Young University. She received her MPA from the University of Utah, and a BA in psychology from the University of Utah.
Rachel Eddington is currently a Project Manager for AidData at Brigham Young University. She oversees BYU's geocoding and sector coding activities. Rachel received her M.S. of Sociology and B.S. in Sociology from BYU.
Affiliated Researchers
Michael Tierney is Director of International Relations and Associate Professor of Government at the College of William and Mary. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 2003. His interests include international organizations, international relations theory, political economy of development and institutions, and foreign aid. He has written numerous articles and book chapters applying agency theory to cases in international relations.
Daniel Nielson is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University. He received his Ph.D. from the University of California, San Diego in 1997. His research interests include agency theory, multilateral development banks, foreign aid, social and environmental assistance, and comparative politics, particularly in Latin America.
Sven Wilson is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Chicago in 1997. He now studies public health policy, labor economics, and the health impacts of international development. He has published in the American Economic Review, Applied Economics, and numerous other journals.
Rob Hicks is an Associate Professor of Economics at the College of William and Mary. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Maryland in 1997. He has published in the area of environmental economics, applied econometrics, and international development finance.
Darren Hawkins is a Professor of Political Science at Brigham Young University, where he is currently the department chair. He teaches and researches on international relations and especially international organizations. He has published a number of scholarly articles on international human rights, international institutions, and democracy.
Mark Buntaine is an Assistant Professor of Government at the College of William and Mary. He received his Ph.D. from Duke University in 2011. His research interests focus on the intersection of international relations, development assistance, and the environment. With support from the U.S. National Science Foundation, Professor Buntaine leads a team of researchers who have coded every World Bank, Asian Development Bank, Inter-American Development Bank and African Development Bank project and country evaluation completed since 1990 on a set of environmental performance indicators. Prior to his doctoral studies, he worked on natural resource management, conservation and development projects in a variety of countries, including China, Thailand, Laos, Australia, and Ecuador.
Mike Findley is an Assistant Professor in the Political Science Department at BYU. He received his Ph.D. in Political Science in 2007 from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. His research examines civil wars, ethnic conflict, and terrorism. He has published in the Journal of Politics, International Studies Quarterly, and other journals.
Chris Marcoux is an Assistant Professor of Politicla Science at DePauw University. He previously served as a Visiting Assistant Professor of Political Science at the New College of Florida, and from 2009-2011, he was a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the College of William and Mary. He received his Ph.D. from the University of Massachusetts in 2008. His research interests span international organizations, international law, and the political economy of global environmental governance.
Daniel C. Miller is a Graham Environmental Sustainability Fellow and Ph.D. candidate in the School of Natural Resources and Environment at the University of Michigan. His research focuses on international environmental politics and policy. Dan is especially interested in explaining the allocation and impacts of aid for environmental conservation. His research addresses this topic at the global level using AidData and at the project level in the “W” region of West Africa. Before coming to Michigan, Dan served as Program Associate for Conservation and Sustainable Development at the MacArthur Foundation.
J. Timmons Roberts is a Professor of Sociology and the Director of the Center for Environmental Studies at Brown University. He directed the Environmental Science and Policy program at the College of William and Mary from 2001-2008, and is Visiting Research Associate at the College of William and Mary's Institute for the Theory and Practice of International Relations. He received his Ph.D. from Johns Hopkins University in 1992. He has a wide range of interests related to environmental policy and environmental justice including work on the social impact of climate change and the role of foreign assistance in addressing climate justice demands.
Maurits van der Veen joined the Department of Government at the College of William and Mary as an Assistant Professor in 2010. He received his BA from Dartmouth College, an MS in computer science from Stanford University, and a Ph.D. in government from Harvard University. His research examines the various ways policymakers think about ("frame") foreign policy issues, and the impact that different frames, in turn, have on actual policy choices. He has applied this approach to the study of foreign aid policy in Western Europe and the United States, the politics of European integration and EU enlargement, and the terminology used to describe massive human rights violations. He also develops agent-based computational models to analyze the impact of social networks on the spread of foreign policy frames, and of ideas more generally.
Simone Dietrich is a Postdoctoral Research Associate at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University. She received her Ph.D. in political science from the Pennsylvania State University in 2011. Her research examines donor-decision making about how to deliver in recipient country and analyzes how these decisions affect development and political outcomes. Prior to her doctoral studies, Simone implemented foreign aid projects while working for international and non-governmental organizations in the Balkans.
Stuart Hamilton is Director of the GIS Program and Director of the Center for Geospatial Analysis at the College of William and Mary. He received his Ph.D. in Geography with a specialization in GIS from the University of Southern Mississippi. His research examines the role of land-cover land-use change on issues of development including food security and access to livelihoods. He has published in the Journal of Land Use Science, Computers Environments and Urban Systems, Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics and numerous other journals.
Carrie Dolan is a Research Professor in Public Policy at the College of William and Mary. She received her MPH from Tulane in 2005 and is currently pursuing her PhD in Healthcare Policy and Research at Virginia Commonwealth University. Dolan has over 10 years of experience in the use of spatial tools such as geographic information systems (GIS), Global Positioning Systems (GPS), and spatial analysis. She has written several articles on methods and techniques that utilize geocoded data to examine health outcomes. Dolan has collaborated with health development projects to use spatial data in several countries including Kenya, Zambia, Mexico, Botswana, Ghana, Jamaica, Dominican Republic, and Haiti.
Marco Millones is a Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow at the Center for Geospatial Analysis at the College of William and Mary. He received his PhD from the Graduate School of Geography at Clark University and a Master’s degree from the University of Miami. He has 10 years of academic and professional experience with applications of Geospatial Analysis for land use/cover dynamics, sustainability indicators and development policy. He has been involved in a wide range of projects including: creating spatially explicit ways to prioritize public investment in Peru; assessing hurricane damage with satellite imagery in the Caribbean; and, evaluating child lead poisoning risk in urban areas in the USA by combing cadastral data with individual medical records. Most recently he has analyzed land use/cover trends and drivers in the Mexican Yucatan using remotely sensed fire data, regional trade flow records, and forest extraction permit archives. Millones has published his work in the International Journal of Remote Sensing, Transactions in GIS and Science in China among other academic journals and has taught courses in introductory and advanced Geographic Information Systems (GIS).
Axel Dreher is professor of International and Development Politics at Heidelberg University. He received his Ph.D. in Economics in 2003 from the University of Mannheim, Germany, and has published in journals like the International Economic Review, Journal of Development Economics, International Organization and the Journal of International Economics. He is Editor of the Review of International Organizations and author of the KOF Index of Globalization. Most of his current research is on political economy and economic development.
Andreas Fuchs is a postdoctoral research fellow at the Niehaus Center for Globalization and Governance at Princeton University. He is currently on leave from the Chair of International and Development Politics at Heidelberg University. Having pursued his Ph.D. studies in Goettingen, Princeton and Heidelberg, he defended his Ph.D. in Economics at University of Goettingen in 2012. His research analyzes aid allocation behavior of emerging donors and how political tensions shape trade with China and India.
Bann Seng Tan is a visiting assistant professor in the Government Department at the College of William & Mary. He received his PhD from the Graduate Center at City University New York in 2013. In his research on foreign aid, he studies the effectiveness of aid conditionality in democracy promotion.
