Symposium

Dr. Martin Burt holds a PhD from Tulane University and is a world-renowned social entrepreneur who has developed anti-poverty and educational social innovations, including the financially self-sufficient agricultural school model and the Poverty Stoplight, a new poverty metric and coaching methodology currently being implemented by more than 800 organizations in 59 countries. He is the founder (1985) and CEO of Fundación Paraguaya, a social enterprise named Latin America’s most impactful and innovative development organization by the Inter-American Development Bank in 2018. He is also co-founder and/or board member of the Bertoni Nature Conservancy Foundation in Paraguay, Teach a Man to Fish in the UK, the Global Foodbanking Network, the Paraguayan-American Cultural Center, the World Economic Forum’s Expert Network, Thrive Lights, and Activate. He has received nearly 20 awards and honors from international organizations, the latest being “Leader for the Planet” by Charities Aid Foundation, the Development Bank of Latin America and the Caribbean, and Spain’s Diario El País. He has written several books about economics, development, and municipal politics, as well as poetry. He also holds various visiting professorships at U.S. and European universities. He has served as Chief of Staff to the President of Paraguay, was elected Mayor of the capital city of Paraguay, Asunción, and was appointed Vice Minister of Commerce.

Dr. Ben Wood earned his PhD in Agricultural and Applied Economics at the University of Illinois and is the Managing Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research, and Learning at Heifer International in Washington, D.C. He is a monitoring and evaluation expert, including the design and management of impact evaluations. He is an internationally recognized expert into research on improving the quality and reliability of evaluations for development decision-making. At Heifer International, he oversees an international team of nine M&E professionals. He has strong experience in designing and managing evaluations for Heifer International and development partners (USAID, IFAD, the Gates Foundation, and MCC) across a range of technical areas, including agriculture, disaster management, electrification, energy, and forestry. His publication record includes peer-reviewed papers in PLOS One, the Journal of Development Studies, Food Policy, and the Economics E-Journal.