Michaela Chua

Policy Associate @Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL)

Cambridge, MA, US

Driving uptake in researcher engagement with J-PAL’s request for proposals (RFP) by analyzing and visualizing proposal submission trends across J-PAL’s Global and North America offices, presenting insights to senior leadership and academic co-chairs, and facilitating efforts across teams to enhance proposal quality.• Enhancing reporting and workflow efficiency by leveraging Salesforce and Google Sheets to develop customized reports that track researcher engagement, monitor the progress of crime initiative projects, and improve data accessibility. Additionally, shared best practices with colleagues to strengthen reporting capabilities across teams.• Advancing J-PAL’s diversity and equity objectives by co-developing guidelines with senior leadership that promote diverse nominations to our research network, coordinating a special-topic racial equity RFP, organizing a webinar with economists from the Racial Equity Advisory Committee, and leading a staff discussion on positionality in economics to foster internal dialogue and learning.• Supporting the launch of J-PAL North America’s Initiative for Effective Crime Policy by coordinating stakeholder mapping, facilitating meetings with key partners such as the National Institute of Corrections, University of Chicago Crime Labs, and National Institute of Justice, and managing logistics for a high-profile launch convening.• Conducted comprehensive literature reviews for both the crime and racial equity initiatives, reviewing over articles across multiple databases, presenting findings to academic co-authors, and meeting deadlines to ensure timely completion of grant deliverables.