Joe Grange

Joe is a Program Cycle Mechanism (PCM) data scientist supporting USAID’s Bureau for Humanitarian Assistance’s Monitoring and Evaluation team. In this role, Joe provides technical support complementary to traditional monitoring and evaluation efforts such as meta-analyses of under-utilized data, simulation exercises, applications of quasi-experimental evaluative techniques, and remote sensing.

Joe’s background of ten years of quantitative research and project management in particle physics prepared him to make an immediate impact in the world of international development through the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s Science and Technology Policy Fellowship. While exploring the universe’s fundamental building blocks was exciting for many years, Joe eventually experienced a growing disconnect between the value of his time and the greater societal benefits of particle physics. Through volunteering with organizations such as DataKind and the University of Michigan’s School of Social Work, followed by joining the Science and Technology Policy Fellowship, Joe has since pivoted his career towards the evaluation and optimization of social programs.

Joe has learned time and again that social science data can be incredibly messy and challenging to interpret, but that there is also nothing more professionally rewarding than discovering convincing trends that lead to actionable insights.