Claire Walsh is a Senior Policy Manager at J-PAL Global at MIT. Claire leads J-PAL's Innovation in Government Initiative, a global fund to support governments in harnessing data and evidence to drive innovation and improve public policy. Claire also leads J-PAL's Environment & Energy team and works on J-PAL's Gender sector, focusing on approaches to measuring women's empowerment. She previously served as interim Deputy Director of J-PAL Southeast Asia in Jakarta. In 2019, MIT awarded her the “Excellence Award”, among the highest honors of the institute for its staff. 

Claire holds an MA from The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University where she specialized in development economics and international business relations and a BA in anthropology from Vassar College. Prior to joining J-PAL in 2012, she worked for NGOs working to improve the quality of education and employment opportunities for youth in East Africa.