Sam Fishman Email & Phone Number

San Francisco Bay Area

I work to advance SPUR's sustainability and resilience priorities through research, advocacy, and education. I am particularly focused on advancing building electrification priorities by working with city governments, community choice aggregators, community-based organizations, and environmental advocates. I study common challenges to building electrification, and advocate for changes at the local and state level to ensure building owners can transition to heat pumps and other zero-pollution equipment smoothly, equitably, at low cost.

Berkeley, Ca

I helped CEGA integrate cutting-edge technologies and data science methods into global policy research, including the use of ML and geospatial analysis, and Development Engineering approaches. I also helped manage CEGA's costing work, which seeks to produce more policy-relevant research products for development actors. All of this work included directing funding, strategy, and communications for a variety of initiatives and active research. A key part of the job was working with academics and policymakers to harness innovative research methods for impact--for example, working on targeting social safety net programs in West Africa or working with USAID to integrate cost-effectiveness approaches into their development programming. I also worked with CEGA to address pitfalls of non-traditional data and technology, such as data privacy concerns and biased algorithms. Some examples of my work at CEGA include USAID's cash benchmarking portfolio where I managed over $7M in grants for research across sub-Saharan Africa; CEGA's Cost Transparency Initiative where I started the Costing Community of Practice; the Geospatial Analysis for Development Initiative, where I launched a series of tutorial with leading researchers; and my work with the Development Impact Lab (DIL) which included projects in energy, ICT, WASH, social protection, environment, and governance.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

I worked with the World Bank's Strategic Impact Evaluation Fund to generate accurate, standardized and comparable cost metrics. I also worked to build the technical costing capacity of NGOs and government ministries as part of a costing pilot, with the end goal of producing broader costing guidance for World Bank programs.

Kisumu, Kenya

I managed a multi-million dollar study on the effects of unconditional cash transfers combined with a behavioral intervention on aspirational goal setting. In this role, I managed over 60 field staff in 2 regions in Western Kenya, helped negotiate a major budget dispute, rebuilt financial reporting systems, and coordinated research implementation between six PIs at three academic institutions, IPA, and our implementing partner, GiveDirectly. I also worked with STATA to prepare high-frequency checks, backcheck processes, and other data analysis procedures necessary to assure high-quality data and well-monitored field operations. I'm particularly proud of our success on this project given the complex implementation challenges we navigated. Challenges included the large geographic scope of the project, fraught inter-organizational negotiations, poor roads and electricity, language barriers, heightened superstition and ethnic tension during election season in Kenya.

Washington, Dc

I provided research, writing, and organizational support to an influential corporate advisory team with McLarty's Africa Practice. We also collaborated with major policy and risk advisory operations like the Scowcroft Center and developed country indicators and annual reports on investment and business climates across Africa.

Washington, Dc

I produced high-quality policy-focused, and analytical content for a small but very influential Africa team at the Atlantic Council. Our efforts were focused on aiding and influencing State Department, USAID, and Congressional policymakers, as well as creating collaborative opportunities between the private sector and these agencies.

Virginia Beach, Virginia

I worked as a Field Organizer in Virginia Beach during the 2012 Presidential Election and was promoted to run the largest field office in the Hampton Roads area on election day.

Masters, International Relations And International Economics, International Economics, Conflict Management, African Studies, Gpa 3.85

Bachelor Of Arts (B.A.), History

Studied African and European History, eventually traveling to South Africa for three months to study with renowned anthropologists John.