Olawunmi Ola-Busari joins the GHD program after working as a Policy Associate at J-PAL Africa, where she worked with development economists, government officials and practitioners to integrate evidence from randomized evaluations into the design of programs and policies. During her three years at J-PAL Africa, she supported the establishment of an agricultural finance program in Rwanda, the scale up of a program of inter-party debates in Sierra Leone and dissemination of evidence on improving electoral participation in Ghana, Kenya and South Africa. Her interest in international development stems from a desire to understand the systems and conditions that drive poverty and inequality in African countries. Olawunmi is interested in issues of governance, particularly in the context of Africa’s growing cities. She is also interested in the role that technological innovations and digital society can play in improving public service delivery, political voice and accountability. At Georgetown, she hopes to pursue these interests and strengthen her policy analysis and quantitative skills. Her ambition is to improve governance in African countries by working with public leaders to enact policies that prioritize the needs of the most vulnerable and to respond creatively to development challenges using insights from data, research and technology. Olawunmi holds a B.A. in Economics from Bard College. She is conversational in French and Italian, and currently learning Korean.