Radhika Iyengar

BIOGRAPHY: Radhika Iyengar has a Ph.D. in Economics of Education from Teachers College in 2011. She received a distinction from Teachers College, Columbia University on her dissertation Social capital as a determinant of schooling in rural India: A mixed methods study. She has also presented her dissertation in various conferences like the Comparative International Education Society, and was awarded the New Scholars Fellowship-Comparative International Education Society for 2010.Prior to her Ph.D. at Columbia University, she has a Masters degree in Economics from the Delhi School of Economics, India. Her professional experience also includes working in an India based non-profit organization- Pratham, for multiple years, as well as many other academic and non-profit contributions. At Pratham, Radhika brought cutting edge research into operation in the program management and implementation areas. She continues to support NGOs in India by conducting technical capacity building workshops in India. She also serves on the Board of advisors of NGOs affiliated with the Government of India working towards rural educational literacy and women’s empowerment.

Along with a rich practical experience of six years, Radhika has also made a contribution to the scientific community focusing on international educational development. She has published numerous articles in reputed journals in her field and also has been referred to by others in her field. Along with published articles, she has co-authored numerous reports that are being used by both domestic and international stakeholders. This also includes her work as a Research Fellow with the Assessment and Evaluation Research Initiative at Teachers College which is showcased on the University website. Radhika has been an active leader both at Teachers College, Columbia University and beyond. She took the initiative to organize a series of Lectures in International Development (LID) at the University. Given the overwhelming response to the lectures, she was able to establish DISHA (Development in South Asia), an active researchers-group based at Teachers College. DISHA has a membership of 170 members from South Asia and continues to invite scholars and practitioners to discuss relevant educational issues. Radhika was also elected as the Program Chair of the South Asia Special Interest Group (SIG) at the Comparative International Education Society (2011-2013). Her duties include selection of research papers for panels organized SIG and lead discussions at the yearly conference. She envisions the SIG of becoming a platform for exchanging ideas and collaborating with NGO’s and governments’ to fill the existing gaps in research, policy and practice. In her role as an Education Specialist, Radhika worked collaboratively with teams and handled multiple research responsibilities. She has also been able to form partnerships with faculty at Teachers College with researchers and program administrators from the Earth Institute. Her work will be critical in shaping the directions of the Education Sector at the Earth Institute. Her research interests in conducting evaluation of educational programs and international educational development is in line with her role and responsibilities at the Earth Institute.