Laura Ralston Email & Phone Number

San Francisco Bay Area

I am working on measuring the incremental value Prime provides to users, how this impacts subscription decisions and downstream actions consumers take. This supports ROI assessments and informs the investment decisions we make. I utilize causal inference, structural demand models, ML and survey research, as well as typical data wrangling skills of DS.

San Francisco Bay Area

I lead our quantitative research team within the Meta Business Data Science org focused on understanding the needs, expectations, pain points of small businesses, as well as their customer journeys and the competitive landscape, so that we can support them better. My team deploys a combination of research and data science methods including survey design, causal inference and experimentation, statistics and machine learning models. We inform critical business decisions across Small Business programs, products, and policies, covering Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp in all our global markets.

San Francisco Bay Area

- Lead conceptualization and management of a project to build a data platform to guide policy decisions, spur innovation, increase financial inclusion in the agri-food sector and detect food insecurity. Fund raising, data source identification, data extraction and ingestion pipelines, diagnostic framework development, prediction algorithm selection. Managed a multi-disciplinary project team with diverse stakeholders.- Identify and contribute technical analysis on data governance issues and personal data protection impacting the networking and automation of agri-food systems. Develop a network of technical partnerships. Organize and host public and internal information exchange events. - Provide operational support and technical assistance to project teams on data collection, effective utilization, and privacy management. Provide technical recommendations on research design and implementation of field experiments and surveys. Connect teams to relevant data resources and financing.- Partnership development and thought leadership on data generation and use for social impact and inclusion in policy and governance. Initiate dialogue with governments; build collaborations with academics, the private sector, and international organizations; coordinate multi-stakeholder summits; issue policy articles and blog posts.

Greater Jakarta Area, Indonesia

- Led portfolio of analytical and advisory services to government of Indonesia on community development strategies. Develop, design, and conduct research. Managed a cross-functional team including economists, statisticians, communications specialists, engineers, agri-business specialists, finance specialists, and legal specialists. Leveraged $8 million research portfolio to ensure maximum impact of $1 billion government program.- Partner with government to apply digital and social media tools for inclusion and participation research. Measured digital access and impacts on socio-economic outcomes, including civic engagement, political polarization, and mobilization of violence. Collaborated and secured high-level buy-in from multiple stakeholders. Identified and tested tools with learning frameworks to enhance inclusive development, local service delivery, and capacity building. - Coordinated COVID19 Social Impact Monitoring. Led academic, donor, and government partnership to use large datasets and engage citizens through social media to track COVID19 impacts on Indonesians, informing public policy responses. - Applied new ML methods and novel data sources for improved poverty targeting. Evaluated new advances in data and technology to assess their ability to improve the accuracy of poverty prediction.- Designed and Applied labor market analysis on income inequality in the Asia, EU and Africa, focusing on task–content of work and risks of automation, opportunities for youth, and policy implications.

Social Protection And Labor Practice, And Fragility, Conflict And Violence Group

- Led design and implementation of Social Welfare, Employment and Education projects. Including setting up operational processes and procedures, leading a global team and motivating staff in post-conflict country. Examples of projects include developing a social security system, youth employment programs, and emergency welfare programs in response to the Ebola epidemic. - Developed of social registries and databases for quantitative assessment and forecasting of social assistance needs and coordination of development and humanitarian programs. - Evaluated development operations in Africa and Asia, using field experiments to derive causal inference and test hypotheses enabling improvements in projects and more efficient use of resources. Applied meta-analysis and systematic review techniques to assess best approaches to adopt in projects.- Portfolio monitoring and resource planning. Led analysis to identify trends and assess portfolio performance, including assessment of financial resource utilization in fragile countries. - Launched multi-stakeholder research collaborations. Co-led multi-partner program with International Initiative for Impact Evaluation (3ie), Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA), Stanford, LSE, MIT, Harvard and UChicago academics.

Economics Department, J-Pal

- Studied the relationship between climate variation and public health using large scale weather, population, and health datasets with Professor Michael Greenstone.- Led teaching seminars on the poverty and global development through MITx and the Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) and with Professors Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee, and experimental and behavioral economics with Professors Ernst Fehr and Drazen Prelec.

Economics Department

- Worked for Sir Nicholas Stern on evaluating modeling assumptions for GHG mitigation cost estimates

Manila

- Analyzed the performance-based allocation of IDA resources, evaluated incentive compatibility of awarding grants and studied debt sustainability- Country-specific focus on Lao PDR, Sri Lanka, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and Mongolia

Cambridge, United Kingdom

- Developed and maintained multi-sectoral dynamic models of the UK and Europe- Prepared economic analysis for Energy, Environment and Economy research reports

London

- Analyzed company financials to assess the value of mergers and acquisitions- Offered full-time position following graduation from LSE

Doctor Of Philosophy (Phd), Economics

Activities and Societies: Cycling TeamPhD Economics

Bachelor Of Science (Bs), Economics

Activities and Societies: University of London Boat ClubBSc. Economics MSc. Economics (2006-2007)