Jenny Aker is a Professor of Development Economics at the Fletcher School and Department of Economics at Tufts University. She also serves as the Director of the Fletcher Leadership Program in Financial Inclusion (FLPFI), the Deputy Director of the Hitachi Center for Technology and International Affairs and a faculty affiliate at the Center for International Environment and Resource Policy (CIERP), as well as a Non-Resident Fellow at the Center for Global Development.
After working for Catholic Relief Services in West and Central Africa, Aker completed her Ph.D. in agricultural economics at the University of California-Berkeley. Her current work seeks to understand the impact of information technology on development outcomes in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly in the areas of agriculture, agricultural markets, adult education and financial inclusion. She is also working with NGOs to understand the barriers to (and impacts of) the adoption of agricultural and environmental technologies, as well as design different mechanisms for providing social protection programs. Aker has been fortunate enough to live and conduct fieldwork in a number of countries, including Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, DRC, The Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Kenya, Liberia, Mali, Morocco, Mozambique, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Sierra Leone, South Sudan, Tanzania and Togo, as well as Haiti and Guatemala.
