William Blackmon Email & Phone Number

Durham, North Carolina, United States

New York, New York, United States

Research Manager, Financial Inclusion Program

Nairobi, Kenya

· Manage field work for two concurrently running randomized control trial impact evaluations being conducted in Nairobi and Kisumu counties, respectively.· EMERGE project (Kisumu, Kenya): measuring impact of providing storybooks and dialogic reading training to parents of young children.· GEM project (Nairobi, Kenya): measuring impact of “micro-franchising” employment training program implemented by the IRC versus unconditional cash transfer on young women in urban informal settlements.· Work closely with Primary Investigators based at the World Bank, the Center for Global Development, University of California Berkeley, University of Michigan, and University of British Columbia.· Oversee survey design, programming, piloting, and surveying of samples of between 900 – 6,000 participants. Surveys include measurements of child literacy and numeracy assessments, parental engagement, informal sector employment income, child and adult time use, food security, and household assets, among others.· Supervise two teams of 6 and 30 staff, respectively, including recruitment, staff training, and team management.· Manage funding totaling over $1 million, including proposal development, budgeting, tracking spending, financial reporting, and donor relations.· Manage survey data flow using Stata, including cleaning, high-frequency data quality checks, and analysis.· Ensure compliance with all human subjects research regulatory requirements including maintaining approvals from local and international Institutional Review Boards, a national research permitting body, and sub-national government offices.· Presented study results at the Education Evidence for Action conference. Met with government officials to provide updates on ongoing studies and communicate initial relevant findings.· Coordinated launch event for Kenya’s Poverty Probability Index, attended by approximately 50 representatives from government, multilateral, and non-governmental organizations.

Nairobi, Kenya

● Co-led implementation of a large (over $1 million) randomized evaluation of Bridge International Academies in Kenya funded by the World Bank and MIT (among others) ● Oversaw data collection activities, including survey and assessment design, piloting and revision of survey tools, programming of tablet-based surveys (in SurveyCTO), and data flow and data quality assurance activities (using Stata). ● Co-led training and management for the team of 170 enumerators conducting the endline activity countrywide● Provided technical support (data quality assurance, survey programming, logistics planning, etc.) for the EMERGE project, a World Bank funded randomized evaluation of storybooks and dialogic reading training aimed at pre-primary students and their parents● Worked closely with Primary Investigators based at Harvard University, University of Virginia, Wesleyan University, and the World Bank.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

● Lead research and writing for a process evaluation of the Bank's Program-for-Results financing of an education reform project in Tanzania called Big Results Now which was cited by the 2018 World Development Report (link below)● Conducted data cleaning and analysis for survey and administrative data collected as part of another evaluation of the Tanzanian Big Results Now program.● Designed teacher surveys for an impact evaluation involving private schools in Uganda

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Worked with Twaweza (an education and citizen agency NGO) to initiate a large evaluation of system-level reforms within Tanzania’s public education sector.● Interfaced with high-level government officials in the Ministry of Education, National Bureau of Statistics, Electoral Commission, President’s Office for Local and Regional Administration, and others to ensure government support and collect relevant datasets.● Designed a data collection tool and led collection process for a curriculum reform project which evaluated the quality of national examinations.● Compiled, organized, and merged large datasets from varied sources and performed initial statistical analysis.

Washington D.C. Metro Area

Worked with the Office of Programming and Training Support to improve quality and access to information resources for Peace Corps Volunteers and staff. Developed information resource management, data analysis, and data visualization skills. Two largest projects:1. Identified and demonstrated trends in language learning outcomes through synthesis and regression analysis of multiple large data sets.2. Compiled, analyzed, and displayed staffing data for all Peace Corps posts globally, identifying differences in volunteer-staff ratios and other staffing trends.

Dar Es Salaam, Tanzania

Selected for a position to continue working for Peace Corps in Tanzania after initial two year service. Work with Peace Corps Volunteers and Peace Corps staff to improve training effectiveness and support Volunteers’ efforts to affect measurable change in their host communities. Project highlights include:● Acted as Assistant Training Coordinator during a 10-week pre-service training for a 61 member class of new Peace Corps Volunteers. Helped develop training program, organized logistics, and lead training sessions.● Lead initiative to redesign grant application process for Volunteers to align with new global Peace Corps process and improve Project Management and Design practices.● With M&E Specialist, improving Monitoring and Evaluation training and tools available to Peace Corps Volunteers so as to develop more consistent and reliable tracking of Volunteers’ impacts in their communities (ongoing).

Mbeya, Tanzania

Dedicated 27 months to a placement in rural southwestern Tanzania. Taught Advanced-level physics at Rungwe Secondary School. Over two years the school saw a 30% increase in pass rates for physics. Primary projects included:● Taught Advanced-level physics classes totaling 170 students for 20 hours per week● Taught physics laboratory practicals to a total of 170 students● Developed students’ critical thinking skills through the creation of a science club, whose 25 members met weekly to complete projects, give presentations, participate in debates, and engage in science-related competitions● Worked with student and teacher leaders to improve the school library. Raised $3600 to purchase over 300 new textbooks, created an improved organizational and book loan system, and trained students to run the library independently. Project resulted in an approximately tenfold increase in the library book checkout rate. Secondary projects included:● Initiated planning and was primary coordinator for two youth empowerment conferences, one a boys conference and the other a critical thinking conference for both boys and girls. These conferences brought approximately 30 students from different schools together to discuss issues related to HIV&AIDS, gender equality, career planning, and critical thinking● Encouraged hands-on science learning while working on the Shika na Mikono (“Grasp With Your Hands”) committee. Demonstrate and promote interactive activities, demonstrations, and games to incoming education volunteers, Tanzanian teachers, and students. ● Lead the Grants Committee in their efforts to support and guide Volunteers as they developed projects with their communities. Trained new Volunteers on grant-writing, project design and management, and monitoring and evaluation.

Masters, Public Policy, 3.95

Activities and Societies: McCourt Fellowship Recipient; Georgetown Initiative on Innovation, Development, and Evaluation (gui2de) Research.

Bachelor Of Science, Civil Engineering, 3.56

Activities and Societies: Physics Tutor, Grader, Study Session Leader