Executive Director and Co-Founder

Jonathan is Professor of Public Policy and Economics at NYU Wagner. His research focuses on finance, poverty, and inequality.

Jonathan is the co-author of The Financial Diaries: How American Families Cope in a World of Uncertainty (Princeton 2017) with Rachel Schneider, which reports on the financial lives of 235 working Americans over the course of a year. He also co-authored Portfolios of the Poor: How the World’s Poor Live on $2 a Day (Princeton 2009) and The Economics of Microfinance (MIT Press 2010). He is co-editor of Banking the World: Empirical Foundations of Financial Inclusion (MIT Press). With Dean Karlan, Morduch has written an empirically-oriented principles of economics text, Economics (McGraw-Hill 2017, 2nd ed.).

Jonathan has taught on the Economics faculty at Harvard, and has held visiting positions at Stanford, Princeton, Hitotsubashi University and the University of Tokyo. He holds a BA from Brown University and Ph.D. from Harvard University, both in Economics. He was awarded an honorary doctorate from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in December 2008 in recognition of his work on microfinance.

Managing Director

Tim serves as Managing Director, coordinating FAI’s research, communications and operations.

His previous work experience encompasses the private and nonprofit sectors. Prior to joining FAI he was the Chief Knowledge Officer at Geneva Global, Inc., an international philanthropy advisory company, and founding editor of Gartner Press. He founded and currently leads Sona Partners, a thought leadership communications firm, where he has helped develop more than 20 books for major publishers. Tim is co-author of Toyota Under Fire, and author of Experimental Conversations, a collection of interviews with economists conducting field experiments on poverty alleviation interventions. He also serves as chairman of GiveWell, and is a senior fellow of the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program and Financial Security Program.

Associate Director, Engagement

Laura works to make FAI’s research as impactful as possible through strategic communication and partnerships. She combines knowledge of user-centered communication with a background in international development.

Previously, she led business development and communications at Reboot, a design firm focused on cross-sectoral collaboration. At NYU’s Development Research Institute, she co-wrote an economic development history of Greene Street in New York City, and managed and co-wrote the Aid Watch blog with economist William Easterly, as a forum to debate aid policies and practices. Her work on this topic has been published in several major publications. Laura graduated from Brown University with a degree in comparative literature, and received her MA in International Development and Economics from the Johns Hopkins School for Advanced International Studies (SAIS). She speaks Italian and is based in Northern Italy.

Research Operations Manager

Rachael leads the operational development and execution of FAI research projects, and supports the generation of findings and insights through analysis of qualitative and quantitative data. Her research interests are focused on strengthening economic livelihoods for communities vulnerable to climate change and natural resources depletion. In previous work she has explored the impact of extractive industries and mechanisms for improving corporate investment in sustainable development; she also served as the education and outreach coordinator for a biological station in the Osa Peninsula of Costa Rica. Rachael holds an MPA from Columbia University's School of International and Public Affairs and speaks fluent Spanish.

Research Data Analyst

As FAI’s Research Data Analyst, David focuses on data cleaning, exploratory analysis, visualization, and econometric modeling. He previously worked at the National Planning Department in Colombia, as a Campaign Manager for Pinterest, and as an Associate Data Scientist at Publicis Group. His interests include international development, poverty, inequality, and how data science can influence policy making. He holds a BA in Economics from Universidad del Norte in Colombia, and will earn an MS in Data Science from Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Cali, Colombia in 2023.

Pre-Doctoral Fellow

Shashank is a doctoral student at the NYU Wagner, studying Public Policy and Development Economics. He works as a Pre-doctoral Fellow at FAI. His research focuses on migration, financial inclusion, and social protection. Before starting his PhD, Shashank was a Senior Research Associate with IFMR LEAD in India, where he worked on field experiments in financial inclusion, women's economic empowerment, and migration. He has a B.A. (Hons.) in Economics from Pandit Deendayal Petroleum University, India, and a Master of Public Affairs from Brown University.