Yomna Mohei Eldin

Yomna joined the Growth Lab at Harvard’s Center for International Development as a research fellow in 2023. Before joining the Growth Lab, Yomna worked as an economist in the Central Bank of Egypt in the Money and Capital Markets department working on monetary policy research, fixed income research, and leading capital markets’ development projects. Yomna holds a Master in Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School and a dual bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance from the American University in Cairo. Her research interests focus on growth, monetary policy sovereign debt, and the implications of climate change and the green transition on countries’ macroeconomic policies.

Lucas Lamby

Lucas joined the Growth Lab at Harvard’s Center for International Development as an Economic Analysis and Data Management Fellow in 2022.

Prior to joining the Growth Lab, Lucas graduated from the Master of Public Administration at the London School of Economics with a distinction and a specialization in Economic Policy. In his thesis, he studied the impact of special economic zones in Colombia on regional growth, trade volumes and tax revenues. He received his BA degree in Politics & Economics from the University of Muenster, Germany, which included an academic year at Harvard College as a visiting student.

Lucas has worked as a consultant at the OECD’s directorate for Employment, Labour and Social Affairs, where he co-authored a paper on the AI talent pool across OECD countries. Other work experiences include working for the German development bank, KfW, in Jordan and the public sector consulting division of PwC. Additionally, Lucas co-founded a social start-up in the educational tech sphere in Germany focused on political education.

His research interests include labor markets, regional development, trade and the socio-economic impact of technological innovations.

Felicia Belostecinic

Felicia joined the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2022.

Before joining the Growth Lab, Felicia obtained her Master in Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School. Prior to that, she worked with IDinsight to provide policy recommendations to governments and multilateral agencies and support them to maximize their social impact via tools such as monitoring and evaluation programs and randomized control trials. Before IDinsight, Felicia had worked with the International Monetary Fund where she conducted econometric panel data analysis that supported the policy recommendations published in the World Economic Outlook.

Felicia has a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service in International Political Economy from Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a Master in Public Administration in International Development from Harvard Kennedy School. Her research interests include improving institutional decision making and macroeconomic growth theory.

Jesús Daboin Pacheco

Jesús joined the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab as an Economic Analysis and Data Management Fellow in 2022 and is now a Research Manager.

He graduated in 2019 with a MA in Specialized Economic Analysis from Barcelona School of Economics where he took courses in International Trade, Finance and Development. In his thesis he studied the effect that political connections to the national government have on local economic growth within municipalities in Colombia. He received his BA degree in Business Economics from Universidad Metropolitana in Caracas.

Before joining the Growth Lab, Jesús worked as a Project Manager and Data Analyst for two years in a project where he explored the intersection between public policy and geospatial data inside Venezuela, where he covered areas such as healthcare, environmental science, security and economic growth. His experience also includes working as Policy Consultant for a political party’s project and a Transfer Pricing Consultant for Deloitte.

Jesús’ interests focus on the challenges to implement social and economic policy inside developing countries while making data-driven decisions. 

Alexia Lochmann

Alexia Lochmann joined the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab as a Visiting Scholar in 2017 and as a Research Fellow in 2021. 

Prior to joining the Growth Lab, Alexia was a post-doctoral researcher at the Free University of Bolzano, Italy and a fellow at the Institut Convergences Migrations, France. She conducted research in the field of migration and cultural economics, as well as studies on social innovation and economic development. Previously, Alexia worked on the evaluation of immigrants’ integration policies in France, and led applied data analysis workshops in the field.

Alexia holds a Ph.D. in Economics from the Paris School of Economics, Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, and a Master’s Degree in International and Development Economics from the same institution.

Andrés Fortunato

Andrés joined the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2021 and is now a Research Manager. 

Before joining the Growth Lab, Andrés spent seven years in the public sector of Argentina working on policy implementation with multiple public agencies. He worked in the Ministry of Social Development, the National Airports Police, the Government of Tierra del Fuego, and the Ministry of Production.  

Andrés holds a B.A. in Philosophy from Universidad de Buenos Aires and a Master of Public Policy from the Harris School of Public Policy at the University of Chicago, with certificates in Data Analytics, International Development, and Policy Analysis. 

His research interests include growth diagnostics, capacity building, and innovation policy.  

Tim Freeman

Tim joined the Center for International Development’s Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2021.

Before joining the Growth Lab, Tim worked at Palladium Group, where he provided technical assistance on export promotion initiatives through private sector competitiveness and investment attraction. Previously, he served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the rural highlands of Peru, leading a USAID-funded ecotourism project in coordination with local government and national environmental agencies.

He received his A.B. in Economics with a minor in Finance from Washington University in St. Louis, and holds a Master’s degree in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID, 2021) from the Harvard Kennedy School.

His research interests include structural transformation, innovation policy, and the intersection of culture with development.

Fernando García

Fernando García joined the Growth Lab as a Research Fellow in 2021.

Fernando’s prior work experience involved a research internship at the Center for Tax and Budget Accountability, where he coordinated and devised a strategy for assessing the viability of a policy proposal on property tax exemptions to low-income areas in Chicago. He worked as an advisor in the Ministry of Health and Social Development in projects aimed at urbanizing underprivileged neighborhoods in Argentina and part-time as a Visiting Professor of Macroeconomics and Microeconomics at Universidad Torcuato Di Tella (UTDT).

Fernando earned a BA in Economics at UTDT and obtained a Master of Public Policy with honors and a data analytics certificate from the University of Chicago – Harris School of Public Policy.

His research interests include macro-fiscal policies, growth, and social mobility.

Clement Brenot

Clement joined the Growth Lab as a research fellow in 2021.

Prior to joining the Growth Lab, Clement spent nine years with the OECD, leading economic research projects in Eastern and Southern Europe, Central Asia, and Turkey. Clement started his career with the Boston Consulting Group, serving a number of public and private sector clients, mainly in the infrastructure and financial services industries.

His research interests include: macroeconomics, international finance and investment; growth diagnostics, especially in middle income and resource-rich economies; cities and urban development; innovation and knowledge.

Clement holds an MSc in Finance from HEC Paris and a Master in Public Administration in International Development (MPA/ID) from the Harvard Kennedy School.

Ljubica Nedelkoska

Ljubica Nedelkoska joined the Growth Lab as a Visiting Scholar in 2012 and as a Research Fellow in 2013. She is also a resident Scientist at the Complexity Science Hub and a Visiting Professor at the Central European University, both located in Vienna, Austria.

Before joining Harvard, she worked as a post-doctoral researcher and a coordinator of the Economics of Innovation Research Group in Jena, and as a research fellow at the Zeppelin University, both in Germany.

Her research area is empirical labor economics, with focus on human capital, human mobility, migration and diasporas, and skill-technology relations. By studying these topics, she aims to understand how economies change their skill portfolios through the processes of on-the-job learning, interacting with technologies, and formal education and training; and how these changes transform the countries’ levels of productivity and development. She is also interested in economic policy and has participated in several economic policy projects in Albania, Sri Lanka, Germany, the Netherlands and Sweden.

She holds a PhD in Economics of Innovation from the Friedrich-Schiller-University in Jena, Germany and a Master’s Degree in Public Administration from the Appalachian State University, North Carolina.