2026 What Works Hub for Global Education Conference Speakers
Keynote panellists and chairs
Rukmini Banerji
Senior Advisor and former CEO
Pratham Education Foundation
Ranil Dissanayake
Deputy Chief Economist
UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Dr. Obiageli ‘Oby’ Ezekwesili
Founder & President
Human Capital Africa
Flora Mutezigaju
Deputy Director General
Rwanda Basic Education Board
Grace Muzila
Former Permanent Secretary
Ministry of Education and Skills Development, Botswana
Elizabeth Ninan Dulvy
Group Manager for Education and Skills
World Bank
Nompumelelo Nyathi-Mohohlwane
Director for Reading
Department of Basic Education, South Africa
Hon. Minister of Basic
and Senior Secondary Education, Sierra Leone
Conrad Omalikeh Sackey
Jonathan Stern
Deputy Director of Global Education
Gates Foundation
Speakers and chairs
Elizabeth Adelman
Research Scientist
FHI 360
Armando Ali
CEO
PAL Network
Tahir Andrabi
Professor of Economics
Pomona College
Noam Angrist
Academic Director
What Works Hub for Global Education
Nishant Baghel
Director, Technology Innovations
Pratham International
Andreas de Barros
Assistant Professor
University of California, Irvine
Amanda Beatty
Head of Research and Learning
Pratham International
Emilie Berkhout
Research Specialist
Youth Impact
Nathanael Bevan
Deputy Director Global Research
UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Jo Bourne
Chief Technical Officer
Global Partnership for Education
Sharnic Djaker
Research Scientist
What Works Hub for Global Education
Alex Eble
Associate Professor of Economics and Education
Columbia University
David Evans
Director, Global Education and Child Well-Being Program
Center for Global Development
Pedro Freitas
Post-Doctoral Research Associate
What Works Hub for Global Education
Poornima Garg
Country Director
Room to Read India Trust
Abhinav Ghosh
Postdoctoral Fellow
Harvard University
Guthrie Gray-Lobe
Lead Researcher
University of Chicago
Jean Leodomir Habarimana Mfura
Researcher/Country Director Gui2de Rwanda
Georgetown University
Rachel Hinton
Senior Education and Social Development Adviser
UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Anders Holm
CEO
Hempel Foundation
Dhir Jhingran
Executive Director
Language and Learning Foundation
Michelle Kaffenberger
Director of Evidence Translation
What Works Hub for Global Education
Akashi Kaul
Director – Research, Monitoring, Evaluation, Assessment and Learning
Central Square Foundation
Samuel Kembou
Global Program Director
Jacobs Foundation
Deborah Kimathi
Education Workforce Initiative and Systems Delivery Lead
The Learning Generation Initiative
Parmod Kumar
State Programme Officer
Directorate of School Education, Haryana
Clare Leaver
Professor of Economics and Public Policy
Blavatnik School of Government
David Lee
Senior Policy Officer
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Australia
Adrienne Lucas
Professor of Economics
University of Delaware, WWHGE Team Tanzania
Raj Misser
Director, Quality Assurance
Gauteng Education Department, South Africa
Ahmed Abdillahi Mohamed
Country Director
Street Child UK (Africa Educational Trust)
Sabina Morley
Senior Education Adviser/Head of Girls’ Education Programmes Team
UK Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office
Laraib Niaz
Assistant Research Professor
University of Cambridge
Sophie Ochmann
Research Manager
Youth Impact
Jennifer Opare-Kumi
Senior Policy and Research Lead
What Works Hub for Global Education
Neha Raheel
Director of Teaching and Learning
Luminos Fund
Shashi Ranjan
State Project Director (SPD)
Jharkhand Education Project Council (JEPC), Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of Jharkhand
Rosa Robinson
Senior Manager, Education Partnerships
Hempel Foundation
Pauline Rose
Professor, International Education
University of Cambridge
Jack Rossiter
Researcher
Independent
Wayne Sandholtz
Assistant Professor
Nova School of Business and Economics
Ansu Sanyang
Principal Education Officer
Ministry of Basic and Secondary Education (MoBSE), The Gambia
Akash Shankar
Indian Administrative Service (IAS) Officer
Government of Karnataka, India
Mercedes Sidders
Senior Policy Manager
Innovations for Poverty Action (IPA)
Abhijeet Singh
Associate Professor
J-PAL; Stockholm School of Economics
Fernanda Soares
Assistant Professor
University of Notre Dame
Marla Spivack
Economist
World Bank
Rebecca Swittens
Associate Director, FLIP National
Madhi Foundation
Hamna Tariq
Program Manager – Education
Centre for Economic Research in Pakistan
Keomany Thongpaseuth
Vice Head of Lao Language Research Center
Research Institute for Educational Sciences (RIES), Ministry of Education and Sports (MoES), Government of Lao PDR
Barbara Trudell
Senior Consultant
SIL Africa Learning and Development
Wilima Wadhwa
Director, ASER Centre
Pratham Education Foundation
Whitney Warren
Chief Education Officer
Building Tomorrow