Our Team

Norma leads Open Philanthropy's work on global aid policy and advocacy. Her previous work experience includes time at the Hewlett Foundation, USAID, the Global Innovation Fund, GiveDirectly, Innovations for Poverty Action, and Mathematica Policy research. Norma received a BA from Bryn Mawr College and a Master of Public Policy from UC Berkeley.

Sam joined Open Philanthropy in February 2022. Before starting at Open Philanthropy, he was a poker dealer by trade and served as a union representative for other poker dealers in Washington State. He has a B.A. in Economics and Music from Wesleyan University.

Nisha leads Program Operations for the BPP team at Open Philanthropy. Before starting at Open Philanthropy, she co-founded a furniture and design consulting company. Prior to that, she built and led cross-functional design, strategy, and management teams serving a range of impact-driven clients in the technology, education, and non-profit sectors. Nisha has a BA in Political Science and a Masters in Architecture from the University of Michigan and currently serves in her town government in Marblehead, MA.

Naina leads Open Philanthropy’s Communications team. She joined in July 2024 after a decade in journalism, most recently as Executive Editor at TIME. There, Naina guided reporters and editors around the world on coverage of global affairs, climate and technology, led newsroom-wide training initiatives and wrote occasional magazine features. Naina holds a BA in English Literature and Modern Languages from the University of Oxford.

Chris supports Open Philanthropy’s work on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. He previously completed a PhD in evolutionary genetics at Harvard University, and he is an alumnus of the Johns Hopkins Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative and the Council on Strategic Risks Fellowship for Ending Bioweapons Programs. Prior to that, he worked as a consultant in McKinsey & Company’s Boston office.

Melanie joined Open Philanthropy in May 2024 and supports the Effective Altruism Global Health and Wellbeing program. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, she was a Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities, where she oversaw research on a variety of global health and development topics. Before that, she was a Research Analyst at Charity Entrepreneurship. She holds a PhD in Neuroscience from Harvard University, and a Micromasters in Data, Economics and Development Policy from MITx.

Asya joined Open Philanthropy in April 2021. Previously, she worked as a researcher at AI Impacts and as a trader and software engineer at a cryptocurrency hedge fund. She has a BA in Computer Science and Engineering from MIT.

Alexander leads Open Philanthropy’s work, which ranges across global catastrophic risks, scientific research, policy advocacy, and global health and development. As a cofounder of Open Philanthropy, he led our initial process for selecting focus areas and hiring and training program officers within them. Previously, Alexander worked as a researcher at GiveWell, conducting evidence reviews and cost-effectiveness analyses for potential top charities. He has a B.A. in philosophy and an M.A. in education policy from Stanford University. You can hear him discuss our work on this episode of the 80,000 Hours podcast, or read more in this interview in The Browser.

David joined Open Philanthropy in January 2024. He works on prioritizing and identifying new causes where Open Philanthropy could have a large impact. Before Open Philanthropy, he worked on the Worldview Investigations Team at Rethink Priorities and completed a PhD in Economics at the Paris School of Economics.

Damon joined Open Philanthropy in September 2022. His research focuses on potential risks from pandemics and from biotechnology. He previously worked as a research scholar at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, where he studied existential risks, and prior to that he completed his PhD in physics at Princeton University.

Daniel joined Open Philanthropy in October 2023. Before taking this role, he was Senior Legal Counsel at Jetty and was previously an associate at Cleary Gottlieb Steen & Hamilton LLP in their debt finance practice group. Daniel earned a J.D. from Harvard Law School and a B.A. in Political Science from McGill University.

Ali joined Open Philanthropy in January 2024 and supports Open Philanthropy’s Salesforce implementation and user base. Previously, she was an Information Systems Delivery Lead with VentureWell and a Salesforce Consultant and Technical Project Manager with Vera Solutions. Ali holds a B.A. from George Washington University and an M.S. in Health Policy and Management from the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

Lewis leads Open Philanthropy’s strategy for Farm Animal Welfare. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he worked as Policy Advisor & International Liaison to the CEO at The Humane Society of the United States (HSUS). Prior to that, he was a litigation fellow at HSUS, a law student, and an associate consultant at Bain & Company. He has a B.A. from Harvard University in Social Studies and a JD from Yale Law School.

Hazel joined Open Philanthropy in June 2023 as a Research Fellow. Before that, she was a PhD student in Economics at MIT. She has a BSc in Mathematics from the University of Sydney and an MSc in Econometrics and Mathematical Economics from the London School of Economics.

Emma joined Open Philanthropy as a Program Associate in September 2022. She recently graduated from Oxford with an MPhil in Economics. Her research focused primarily on development and spatial economics - including mapping informal settlements across sub-Saharan Africa at scale for the first time. Prior to her MPhil, Emma worked at the Boston Consulting Group in Johannesburg. She has also been a Research Fellow for Charity Entrepreneurship in London.

Britney joined Open Philanthropy in May 2023. Previously, she worked on the Business Operations team at Open Phil, at a construction start-up building accessory dwelling units, and as an English teacher in rural Japan. Britney graduated from San Diego State University with a B.A. in Urban Studies.

Joseph joined Open Philanthropy in September 2018. His research focuses on risks to humanity’s long-term future. He’s also a doctoral student in philosophy at Oxford University. He has a BPhil in Philosophy from Oxford University and a B.A. in Philosophy from Yale University.

Clem joined Open Philanthropy in December 2023. Previously, he worked at Natural Resources Defense Council as Senior Salesforce Administrator, and subsequently led his team as Senior Director of Data Infrastructure. He was also a Salesforce Administrator at a NYC-based nonprofit, The Financial Clinic. Before moving to New York, he was a writer, editor, and proofreader at Groupon Malaysia. He holds a bachelor’s degree in Economics and Finance from RMIT University in Melbourne, Australia.

Matt joined Open Philanthropy in November 2022 where he works on ways to safely accelerate scientific progress and innovation. Matt is a senior fellow at the Institute for Progress, where he was previously Senior Innovation Economist. He taught economics for several years at Iowa State University, and worked on science policy at the US Department of Agriculture after obtaining a PhD in economics from Iowa State University. He is the creator of the living literature review New Things Under the Sun, which he continues to maintain as part of his work at Open Philanthropy.

Katharine joined the Global Health R&D team in May 2023. Her goal is to identify and support research and development opportunities for new tools to tackle diseases with a large global health burden. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy she was an international malaria researcher based at the University of Oxford in the UK, Queensland Medical Research Institute in Australia, and Radboud University Medical Centre in The Netherlands, with research projects based in Burkina Faso and Mali. Her research focused on the development and evaluation of malaria vaccines, development of human malaria infection models, and malaria transmission epidemiology. She holds a Ph.D in malaria vaccine development from the University of Oxford, and a Masters in molecular and cellular biology from the University of Bath.

Ajeya leads Open Phil's grantmaking on technical research that could help to clarify and reduce catastrophic risks from advanced AI. As part of this role, Ajeya conducts analysis on threat models (ways that advanced AI could cause catastrophic harm) and technical agendas (technical work that may help to address these threat models). Previously, she worked on estimating when transformative AI might be developed, estimating the expected returns to funding across cause areas related to global catastrophic risk, and thinking about how worldview diversification could be implemented in budget allocation. She joined Open Philanthropy in July 2016 as a Research Analyst. Ajeya has a B.S. in Electrical Engineering and Computer Science from UC Berkeley, where she founded the Effective Altruists of Berkeley student group and taught a course on effective altruism.

Max joined Open Philanthropy in November 2022. Previously, he worked in research and project management roles at several organizations in the effective altruism community, including the Forethought Foundation for Global Priorities Research and Oxford's Future of Humanity Institute. He has a master's in mathematics from Heidelberg University.

Caroline joined Open Philanthropy in September 2023. Before taking this role, she worked as Of Counsel at Richman Law & Policy and was a law lecturer in New Zealand. Prior to those roles, she worked as a commercial litigator in New York. Caroline earned a JD from Columbia Law School, an MTS from Harvard Divinity School, and a Bachelor’s in Philosophy and Religion from the College of the Holy Cross.

Tom joined Open Philanthropy in January 2020. He’s currently working on assessing arguments that transformative AI might be developed relatively soon, which is an input into how much capital should be allocated to the potential risks from advanced AI focus area relative to other areas. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, Tom worked as a Data Scientist for education technology startup BridgeU and taught science at a UK comprehensive school. He has a Masters in Physics and Philosophy from the University of Oxford.

Kayla joined Open Philanthropy in February 2024. Previously, she worked at IDinsight as a Senior Partnerships Analyst, managing grants and funder relationships. She has a BA in Economics and International Development from McGill University.

Rafael supports the Global Health R&D program on grant investigations, research, and portfolio management. Previously, he worked as a Senior Associate Consultant at Bain & Company. He holds a Bachelor's in Economics from the University of São Paulo and a MicroMaster's in Development Economics from MIT.

Sam joined Open Philanthropy in October 2022. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he led the Behavioral Analysis team within the UK's COVID-19 Taskforce, and previously worked at Channel 4 and McKinsey & Company. He has an MSc in Economics for Development and a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford.

Jordan joined Open Philanthropy in October 2024. As part of the Innovation Policy team, he works to identify and support promising opportunities to boost the efficiency, impact, and safety of the scientific ecosystem. Previously, Jordan was the Metascience Program Lead at the Federation of American Scientists, and an Assistant Professor of Clinical Biostatistics in Psychiatry at Columbia University. He holds a PhD in Biostatistics from the University of Pennsylvania and a BS in Psychology from Haverford College.

Madeline joined the Grants Management team in March 2024. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, she worked as a Grants Lead and Grants Administrator at Effective Ventures Foundation where she supported their grantmaking. She enjoys learning new skills, including foreign languages, music, and sport.

Ben joined Open Philanthropy in July 2024. Previously, he was Head of Finance at Effective Ventures Foundation, and before that held several roles in the forensic accounting space, most recently with Deloitte in London. He is a Chartered Accountant and holds a BA from Cambridge University as well as an MSc from Imperial College London, both in mathematics.

Peter works to identify new issue areas where Open Philanthropy could have high impact, and to prioritize Open Philanthropy’s giving across causes in policy, scientific research, and global development. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, Peter was a graduate student at the London School of Economics (LSE) and a researcher at Stanford and MIT Sloan, focusing on the economics of public goods. Before that, he analyzed currency markets in Bridgewater Associates’ research department and was a product manager in Bridgewater’s Systemized Intelligence Lab. Peter holds an MSc in Economics from LSE and a bachelor’s degree in Public Policy from Princeton.

Lukas joined Open Philanthropy in September 2022. He's currently conducting research on what we can do to reduce potential risks from advanced AI. Previously, he was a research scholar at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute. He has a B.S. in computer science from KTH Royal Institute of Technology.

Meiko joined the Operations team in March of 2022. Before joining Open Philanthropy, she worked at Oasis for Girls, an education non-profit that partners with girls of color in San Francisco; while there, she facilitated the ENVISION: Career Exploration program. Meiko graduated from Stanford University in 2019 with a B. A. in Urban Studies.

Nick joined Open Philanthropy in May 2024. Prior to this, he conducted research as an undergraduate on a range of topics in AI safety and governance, including methods for steering language models and regulatory capture in AI policy. Nick has a BA in Philosophy and Mathematics from Harvard College.

Aaron joined Open Philanthropy in January 2022, after spending three years working on content at the Centre for Effective Altruism. He’s helped to run a variety of projects in the EA community, including the EA Forum and EA Newsletter; he also co-founded Yale University’s student EA group. Outside his work in effective altruism, he’s a passionate Twitch streamer and semi-professional gamer who placed second at the 2020 Magic: the Gathering world championship.

Liz leads Open Philanthropy’s Partnership work. She joined in December 2024 after two decades building social impact fundraising teams and working closely with philanthropists, most recently as Chief Development Officer at Tipping Point Community. Liz started her career in investment banking and holds a BS from Washington and Lee University and an MBA from Stanford Graduate School of Business.

Glen joined the grants team in April 2022. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he was a Vetting and Grants Management Fellow at GlobalGiving, where he conducted due diligence and facilitated the grants process for community-led nonprofits around the world. He has a B.A. in international studies from American University

Martin joined Open Philanthropy in September 2022. He works on identifying opportunities to improve farmed animal welfare. Previously he worked at the Paul Ramsay Foundation, and prior to that with IDinsight in Zambia and Malawi.

Travis joined Open Philanthropy in September 2024. Before that, he worked as a Security Support Specialist at Upfort, and on the IT Operations team at Stripe. He enjoys traveling and spending time outdoors, and has degrees in Journalism and Mass Communications.

Phillip joined Open Philanthropy in May 2023. Previously, he worked at KPMG as an Audit Associate. He graduated from College of Charleston with a B.A. in Arts Management, and holds an M.S. in Accounting from University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Santosh leads our grantmaking in environmental health within our Global Public Health Policy Program. His work currently focuses on particulate air pollution and lead exposure. Santosh joined Open Philanthropy in January 2022 to lead our South Asian Air Quality Program, before expanding his role to cover a wider breadth of environmental health issues. Prior to this, he was a researcher in air quality governance at the Centre for Policy Research, New Delhi and the India center of the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, and did post-doctoral fellowships with J-PAL South Asia and Evidence for Policy Design. He has a B.Tech. from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras and a Ph.D. in Engineering and Public Policy from Carnegie Mellon University.

Julian joined Open Philanthropy in August 2023. Before joining Open Philanthropy, he worked as a summer research fellow at the Centre for the Governance of AI, and then as a research assistant for their policy team. Prior to this, he worked as a content and research associate at Giving What We Can. Julian holds an MSc in Social Science of the Internet from the University of Oxford and a BA in Economics from McGill University.

Will joined Open Philanthropy in July 2024. Before joining Open Philanthropy, he worked as a editorial fellow at TIME, and as an associate consultant at Bain & Company. Will holds a Master in Public Policy degree from the Harvard Kennedy School and an MChem in Chemistry from the University of Oxford.

Stacey joined Open Philanthropy in July 2024. Previously, she helped direct operations for the Initiative for Energy Justice and formed the operations department for The Solutions Project. Outside of work, Stacey is a bicyclist, photographer, chocolatier, and plant enthusiast. Stacey graduated from the University of Illinois at Chicago with a B.A. in Applied Psychology.

Peter joined Open Philanthropy in July 2024. He works on the Global Health and Wellbeing Cause Prioritization team, focusing on methodological issues relevant to cost-effectiveness estimation. He holds a PhD in economics from Harvard University. His PhD research focused on development and behavioral economics using experiments in Kenya and in partnership with a large tech company. He previously worked at the National Bureau of Economic Research and earned a bachelor's in applied mathematics from Harvard.

Tom works on the Global Public Health Policy Program, where he focuses on grantmaking for the Lead Exposure Action Fund (LEAF). Previously, he co-led the Global Health and Development team at Rethink Priorities, was a senior partner lead for the Stopping Tobacco Organizations and Products (STOP) Partnership, and was a Research Fellow at the University of Bath and Monash University. He holds an MPhil and PhD in Global Public Health from the University of Cambridge and a BSc from Imperial College London.

Derek is Open Philanthropy’s Interim Managing Director of Operations. Previously, he was the Director of Grants Management and oversaw our grantmaking logistics, including finance and legal operations. He’s been with Open Philanthropy since July 2017. Prior to his time at Open Philanthropy, he spent six years in a variety of roles at Reasoning Mind, an education nonprofit that developed digital math programs based on international pedagogy and best practices. Derek graduated from Indiana University. In his free time, he enjoys reading, traveling, playing tennis, and spending time with his wife, friends, and family members.

Amanda joined Open Philanthropy in March 2018. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, Amanda worked as a staff attorney, specializing in farm animal issues for The Humane Society of the United States. Before that, Amanda clerked for Judge Stefan R. Underhill of the District of Connecticut. Amanda has a B.A. in English and Sociology from Wesleyan University and a JD from Columbia Law School.  

Sai joined Open Philanthropy in May 2022. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, Sai spent over ten years in corporate legal practice, most recently as General Counsel for TripActions, Inc. Sai has a J.D. from Stanford Law School and a B.S. from Columbia University.

Rochelle joined Open Philanthropy in August 2024. Previously, she led operations for GlassWall Syndicate, an impact investing network. Rochelle has a B.S. in Biology from Lewis and Clark College.

Isabel joined Open Philanthropy in April 2022. Prior to that, she has been a research fellow at Forethought Foundation, a doctoral student in Economics at UCLA, and a research assistant at the Federal Reserve. Isabel has an MA in Economics from UCLA and a BA in Economics, Mathematics, Statistics and Computer Science from Rutgers University.

Douglas joined Open Philanthropy in July 2024 as a Researcher on the Global Health and Wellbeing Cause Prioritization team. Before joining Open Philanthropy, he was a Senior Associate on the HIV Treatment and Market Intelligence team at CHAI. He holds a Bachelor of Medicine and Surgery degree from the University of Port Harcourt, and an MSc in Health Policy, Planning, and Financing from the London School of Economics and London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Philipp joined Open Philanthropy in August 2024, where he works on the Global Health and Wellbeing Cause Prioritization and Partnerships teams, with a focus on identifying cost-effective funding opportunities. Before joining Open Philanthropy, Philipp worked as an Economist at IDinsight in Nairobi, where he led decision-focused research projects for clients in the global development sector. He holds a Ph.D. and Master's degree in Economics from Universitat Pompeu Fabra, Barcelona, and a Bachelor's degree in Economics from Maastricht University. Philipp's academic research has studied personnel economics in the context of Sierra Leone's National Community Health Worker Program and the general equilibrium effects of cash transfers in Malawi.

Dee joined Open Philanthropy in October 2023. Previously, she was the Outreach and Communications Director at Effective Thesis, a nonprofit that assists students in choosing impactful thesis topics, and also served as a marketing advisor at the University of Southern California. She holds a Bachelor of Engineering in IT.

Victoria joined Open Philanthropy in September 2024. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, she was a Technical Program Manager at a small startup, where she built secure, scaleable technical infrastructure and developed personal cybersecurity programs. Previously, she taught mathematics while obtaining an M.S. Applied Mathematics. In her free time, Victoria enjoys reading books, solving jigsaw puzzles, and looking at rocks. She is a hobbyist leatherworker and vegetable gardener.

Ray joined the global health research and development team in February 2023. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy he worked for the Clinton Health Access Initiative, UNICEF, DFID & Innovision Consulting and has lived in DR Congo, Ethiopia & Bangladesh. He holds an MSc in Health Policy, Planning and Financing from London School of Economics & London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine.

Oliver Kim joined Open Philanthropy in August 2024, where he works on the Global Health and Wellbeing Cause Prioritization team. Before coming to Open Philanthropy, he completed a PhD in economics at University of California, Berkeley. Before that, he worked as a research analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, and completed an AB in Economics from Harvard College.

Jeremy joined Open Philanthropy in January 2024. Prior to joining, he worked as a freelance writer and editor for organizations like the Centre for Long-Term Resilience and the Cerebral Palsy Research Network. He received a B.A. from California State University, Long Beach and an M.F.A. from Oregon State University.

Damien joined Open Philanthropy in November of 2023. Before starting at Open Phil, he ran a nonprofit focused on increasing awareness of existential risks, volunteered on political campaigns, and worked to certify B Corps at B Lab in Philadelphia. He has a B.S. in Economics from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.

Molly joined Open Philanthropy in January 2021. Before taking this role, she was the head of International Humanitarian Law at the American Red Cross. Prior to that, she served as a Judge Advocate in the U.S. Army, where she still serves as a reservist. Molly has a J.D. from New York University School of Law and a B.A. from Barnard College, Columbia University.

Myron joined OP in January 2024. He previously worked in various early-stage startups, most recently in Business Operation roles at Alvea and Omnipresent. Prior to that he worked at the venture capital firm Entrepreneur First as an Analyst. He enjoys playing tennis and spending time with friends and family.

Abhi joined Open Philanthropy in September 2022. He works on investigating the most promising opportunities to reduce the suffering of farm animals, with a focus on the development and commercialization of alternatives to animal products. Previously, he worked as a researcher studying the cost structure of meat alternatives. Prior to that, he worked on the investment teams at venture capital funds Lever VC and Ahimsa VC. He has an MMS from Yale School of Management & HEC Paris, and a BSocSc from Singapore Management University.

Olivia is a Strategy Fellow focused on Open Philanthropy’s work partnering with donors and grantmakers to bring resources to cost-effective opportunities in Global Health and Wellbeing. She joined Open Philanthropy in July 2024 after five years at GiveWell, where she was a Philanthropy Advisor. She holds an MBA from Yale School of Management and a BA in English and Economics from Williams College.

Rafael joined Open Philanthropy in September 2022, where he helps the Global Health and Wellbeing Cause Prioritization team find new cause areas to fund. He previously worked at Harvard's Center for International Development and at the World Bank. He holds a PhD in Public Policy and an MPA-ID from Harvard University, and a MSc in Economics and a BSc in Molecular Sciences from the University of São Paulo.

Michelle joined Open Philanthropy in September 2022 as the Farm Animal Welfare team's first science-focused Program Associate. She has a PhD from the University of Guelph's Campbell Centre for the Study of Animal Welfare, during which she focused her dissertation research on fish behaviour and welfare. She has also previously worked with Rethink Priorities on their Moral Weight Project as a farmed fish welfare consultant, and has contributed to Canada's National Farm Animal Care Council's Farmed Salmonid Code of Practice as a fish welfare scientist. Aside from her doctorate, Michelle also has an MSc (Biology: focused on salmonid ecology) from the University of New Brunswick's Canadian Rivers Institute, and a BScH (Specialization in Biology) from Queen's University.

Alex joined Open Philanthropy in August 2023 from 80,000 Hours, where he was Advising Manager on the 1-on-1 team. Prior to this, he taught Mathematics and Physics at a specialist Sixth Form college in London.

Jia Li joined Open Philanthropy in June of 2022. Before joining Open Philanthropy, she completed sustainability-related internships and a fellowship with Evergreen Strategy Group, a policy communications firm. Jia Li graduated from Georgetown University with a B.S. in Management and Marketing, and a minor in Environmental Studies.

Trevor joined Open Philanthropy in June 2023. Before joining Open Philanthropy, he co-founded the Cambridge Boston Alignment Initiative, a nonprofit aiming to empower people to pursue impactful careers in research and policy related to reducing risks from advanced AI. Previously, he was a summer research fellow at the Centre for the Governance of AI, a student in Harvard's JD/MPP program, and an assistant project manager at CAMBA Housing Ventures. Trevor has a BA in Social Studies from Harvard.

Brittanie joined Open Philanthropy in August 2024. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, she worked as an immigration paralegal supporting a variety of organizations across the for-profit and nonprofit sectors. She also worked extensively to help Afghan refugees, undocumented youth, and victims of crime apply for political asylum and other forms of immigration relief. She graduated from Amherst College with a B.A. in History.

Nic joined Open Philanthropy in July 2024, where he does research to prioritize goals and funding opportunities for the Global Aid Policy program. Before coming to Open Philanthropy, he completed a PhD in Political Science at Stanford University and worked at IDinsight in Nairobi. He holds a master’s degree in African Development from the London School of Economics and bachelor’s degrees in Economics and Political Science from Columbia University.

Devin joined Open Philanthropy in November 2024. Before joining Open Philanthropy, Devin was a senior advisor to the General Counsel of the U.S. Treasury Department. Prior to that, he worked for the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the California Attorney General's Office, and a civil rights law firm based in San Francisco. Devin earned his J.D. at Harvard Law School and completed judicial clerkships with the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

Martin joined the Operations team in September 2022. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he spent ten years working as an immigration paralegal for New York City-based law firms, most recently as a Business Immigration Supervisor at Fragomen, Del Rey, Bernsen & Loewy, LLP.

Evan joined Open Philanthropy in September 2022. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he worked as the COO at One for the World, a community organizing non-profit which raises money for GiveWell's recommended charities. He has a B.A. in Economics and Political Science from Villanova University.

Jake joined Open Philanthropy in November 2024, where he works on identifying promising research opportunities for mitigating catastrophic risks from advanced AI. Previously, he worked as an Intepretability Research Scientist at Apollo Research, and did independent research in AI safety and in pandemic modelling. He received a Bachelors in Physics and a Masters in Mathematics from the University of Cambridge.

Eddie joined the Grants Managements team in April 2023. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he worked in a variety of nonprofit operations roles and, before that, as a corporate lawyer for a London firm. He has a degree in modern and medieval languages from the University of Cambridge.

Deena joined Open Philanthropy in January 2024. Before starting at Open Philanthropy, Deena was a consultant at McKinsey & Company, where her work focused on health. Deena graduated with a BA in Ethics, Politics, and Economics from Yale University.

Luke joined Open Philanthropy in 2015. He leads our grantmaking on AI governance and policy. Previously, as a Research Analyst and then a Senior Research Analyst, his investigations spanned a wide range of topics, particularly the social sciences, global catastrophic risks, animal consciousness, and forecasting. Before joining Open Philanthropy, he was Executive Director of the Machine Intelligence Research Institute in Berkeley, California.

Max joined Open Philanthropy in October 2023. Previously, he conducted research investigating the interpretability of image classification and language models. He has also organized educational and residency programs for researchers entering AI Safety. He received a B.A. in Computer Science from Harvard College.

Rossa leads Open Philanthropy's cause prioritization research team, which looks for high impact cause areas in Global Health and Wellbeing. He joined Open Philanthropy from the University of Oxford, where he held positions at the Global Priorities Institute and the Economics Department. He has a PhD in Economics from the University of Pennsylvania and a BA and MSc from the University of Oxford.

Kathryn joined Open Philanthropy in February 2024. She previously worked on community building and organizing for AI safety. She graduated from King’s College London with a BA in film studies.

Emily leads Open Philanthropy’s Global Health and Wellbeing work, which accounted for more than $500 million in grants in 2023 and includes programs focused on scientific research, policy advocacy, global development, and phasing out the worst factory farm practices. She joined Open Philanthropy in April 2021, first working on new cause investigations and helping to manage the Regranting Challenge. She previously worked at DeepMind, Uber, and TGG Group. She has a BSFS in International Political Economy from Georgetown University and a DPhil in Economics from Oxford University.  You can read more about our Global Health and Wellbeing work in an article Emily wrote for the Journal of Economic Perspectives.

Alessandra joined the Grants Management team in January 2023. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, she worked in strategy and operations at a cybersecurity startup. She has an MBiochem (Hons) in Molecular and Cellular Biochemistry from the University of Oxford.

Paige joined Open Philanthropy in July 2024. Previously, she led the People Operations function at Animalz. During this time, she also volunteered to help run operations, marketing, artistic direction and the box office at Left Edge Theatre, where she often was also seen on stage or in the director’s seat. She graduated from NYU with a B.A. in History and Dramatic Literature.

Gabriella joined Open Philanthropy in August 2024. Previously, Gabriella was a Senior Manager on the Global People Operations team at IDinsight where she managed all people operations, policy, training, and org-culture-related processes. She has a B.A. in International Studies and a B.A. in Latin American Studies from University of San Francisco.

Matthew leads the development and management of Open Philanthropy’s Salesforce platform. Before joining Open Philanthropy, he served as CRM Product Manager at the Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), where he oversaw Salesforce system architecture. Prior to that, he coordinated Columbia Law School’s pro bono program, and helped nonprofit clients get the most out of Salesforce as a consultant at Cloud for Good. Matthew enjoys participating in the open source Salesforce.org community, and serves as a leader of the NYC Salesforce Developer Community Group. In 2019, Salesforce awarded him MVP status for his community contributions. Before working with Salesforce, Matthew spent over a decade in the field of performing arts administration. He holds a BA in Political Science and Philosophy from West Virginia University, and lives in New York City, where he enjoys vegan junk food and seeing almost any kind of live performance.  

Quincy joined the Legal team in July 2024. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, they worked as a Grants Administrator at Effective Ventures Foundation and as a teacher of English as a second language. They graduated from Swarthmore College, where they studied music and education.

Javier joined Open Philanthropy in 2021. His work supports Open Phil’s forecasting efforts (led by Benjamin Tereick), which include funding the forecasting ecosystem as well as internal-facing initiatives in foresight and evaluation. He’s been involved in effective altruism since 2018, especially through his local community in Spain. He holds a double BSc in Physics and Mathematics. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he interned at CERN and worked as a freelance “mathy tech person” for two years.

Kate joined Open Philanthropy in 2022. Previously, she was the Faculty Records Coordinator at California College of the Arts. She has also worked as Community Manager for Calm.com, a mindfulness and meditation app, and as a contributing writer for A&E Television. She received a B.A. from Stanford University and an M.F.A. from Mills College.

Matt joined Open Philanthropy in February 2023. He holds a Bachelor’s in Engineering Science with a specialization in machine learning from the Technical University of Munich, where he co-organized Munich’s EA group. Prior to joining the Open Phil team, Matt ran a 10-week ML bootcamp to upskill people interested in working on AI safety.

Tanae joined Open Philanthropy in September 2024. He works on prioritizing and identifying new causes where Open Philanthropy could have a large impact. He has a BA in Philosophy, Politics and Economics from the University of Oxford and an MSc in Economics from the London School of Economics.

Nick joined Open Philanthropy in July of 2022. Previously, he worked at Paylocity as an Implementation Manager, focusing on process improvement initiatives and the small client experience. He graduated from Washington University in St. Louis with degrees in Marketing and Italian.

Ilva joined Open Philanthropy in April 2023. Previously, she worked in a variety of roles managing and developing operations for Effective Altruism projects, and as a Treasurer for her local nonprofit. Ilva has a B.A. in International Business Management from Anglia Ruskin University.

Otis advises our Global Health and Wellbeing teams, providing input on questions related to cause selection and global development. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy in 2021, he was a political donor advisor and worked at BlueLabs, a campaign analytics firm, managing their Campaign Modeling team. Before graduate school, he also spent a year at McKinsey & Company. Otis has a PhD in economics from MIT, where he studied the political economy of development, working primarily in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Uganda. He also holds a BA in economics and public policy from Stanford.  

Luca joined Open Philanthropy in December 2021. Previously, he was a research scholar at the University of Oxford’s Future of Humanity Institute, a research assistant at the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment, and briefly acted as a policy advisor to the UK Government’s Office for Artificial Intelligence. Luca has a BA in economics from the University of Cambridge.

María joined Open Philanthropy in February 2023. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, she managed the Job Board at 80,000 Hours. Way back, she was a graphic designer, illustrator, and animator, and she continues to occasionally take on small creative gigs. She received a B.F.A. in Animation, Film & TV from New York University and studied figurative life drawing at the Art Students League of New York.

David supports Open Philanthropy with in-depth reviews of evidence on empirical questions, such as "Do alcohol taxes save lives?" and "Does immigration reduce pay or employment for natives?" David worked at the Worldwatch Institute for nine years and the Center for Global Development for eleven. After a time with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, he became an independent consultant in 2014, and soon began working with Open Philanthropy on that basis. He became an employee in 2015. David holds a degree in theoretical mathematics from Harvard, and spent an academic year on a Fulbright in Vietnam.

Eli joined Open Philanthropy in June 2020. Previously, he was Director of Engineering at Mentor Collective, a Boston educational technology company. He graduated in 2015 from Oberlin College, where he studied computer science and creative writing.  

George joined Open Philanthropy in March 2024. Previously, he worked as Chief of Staff at Effective Ventures UK and as a consultant at McKinsey & Company. George has a B.A. from Cambridge and was a Henry Fellow at Harvard, where he focused on moral psychology.

Tom joined Open Philanthropy in October 2023, after spending a year helping EA organizations source mid- and senior-level talent. Prior to that, he worked for the UK’s Foreign, Commonwealth, and Development Office for eight years. He completed a B.A. in Philosophy, Politics, and Economics at the University of Oxford, during which time he also served as Communications Director for Giving What We Can and 80,000 Hours.

Jason joined Open Philanthropy in April 2022. He works to identify new areas where Open Philanthropy could have high impact and also helps to prioritize across existing causes. Before joining Open Philanthropy, Jason was a Senior Research Manager at Rethink Priorities, where he worked on animal welfare and global health and development issues. He holds a PhD in philosophy from the University of Texas at Austin.

Jake graduated from Villanova University in 2013 with bachelor’s degrees in accounting and finance. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he served as an Infantry Platoon Leader in the US Army and, most recently, was an Assurance Manager with PwC. He joined Open Philanthropy in February 2022.

Sam joined Open Philanthropy in February 2022. Before taking this role, he was an associate at Latham & Watkins LLP in their Environment, Land & Resources practice group. Sam earned a JD and a Master of Environmental Studies from Penn, as well as a bachelor’s in Politics from Princeton.

Gilad joined Open Philanthropy in January 2024. Previously, he supported operations at the Gesell Program in Early Childhood at Yale, and taught English at the high school and undergraduate levels. He holds a Master's in Teaching for secondary English education and a Bachelor's in Psychology and Literary Arts from Brown University.

Kasey joined Open Philanthropy in August 2022.  Previously, he was a software engineering intern at Amazon and co-led the EA club at Northwestern University, where he graduated with a BA in Computer Science.

Jamie joined Open Philanthropy in January 2023. Previously, he worked as a Policy Associate at J-PAL North America and as a Monitoring & Evaluation Officer at the Adonis Musati Project. Jamie holds a BS in Economics from Tulane and a Master’s in Economic Development from the University of Cape Town.

Harshdeep joined Open Philanthropy in August 2021. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he worked as a consultant for Mercy For Animals in the government affairs and public policy team. Prior to that, he was an associate at PLR Chambers, a law firm specializing in regulatory and policy affairs. He has a B.B.A., LL.B (Hons.) from Gujarat National Law University, Gandhinagar.

Neha Singh joined Open Philanthropy in April 2024. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, she worked as a Software Engineer for the Emerging Technology Observatory initiative at Georgetown University’s Center for Security and Emerging Technology. She previously worked as a software engineer for a legal tech startup and as a patent agent. She received a J.D. (cum laude) from Harvard Law School, and a B.S. and M.S. in Electrical and Computer Engineering from Carnegie Mellon University.

Joseph joined Open Philanthropy in July 2024. Previously, he worked as a Data Strategy Consultant for Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors. Prior to that, he owned a pedicab business that operated at events across the US. Joseph studied at Illinois Wesleyan University and received a BA in English from Southern New Hampshire University.

Chris joined the Global Health and Wellbeing team as a Strategy Fellow in January 2022. He leads our grantmaking in alcohol policy, conducts research across our Global Health and Wellbeing portfolio, and manages special projects.  Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he worked as a freelance strategy consultant, and previously at OC&C Strategy Consultants in London. Chris has bachelor’s degrees in Philosophy and Theology from the University of Oxford and in Economics and Mathematical Sciences from the Open University; he completed his Masters in Public Health at Imperial College London.

Kiana joined Open Philanthropy’s Business Immigration team in September 2023. She brings experience in legal administration, operations, fundraising, grants management, and community development, having previously held positions across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors. Her passion lies in breaking down intercultural communication barriers and transforming complex information into digestible content. She has a B.A. in International Studies, a B.A. in Spanish Language, and a Certificate of Translation and Interpretation from Virginia Commonwealth University.

James oversees Open Philanthropy’s global health and wellbeing programs on policy and effective altruism. James joined Open Phil in July 2022 from GiveWell, where he led programs in policy and advocacy, including work across lead exposure, alcohol policy, suicide prevention, and the response to COVID-19. He holds a B.A. from the University of Oxford and an M.Sc. from the London School of Economics.

Andrew leads Open Philanthropy’s work on biosecurity and pandemic preparedness. He previously spent five years at the Future of Humanity Institute (University of Oxford), where he worked as a program manager and later as Director of Research, developing programs across the institute (including those in biosecurity and systemic risk). Prior to that, he was a researcher at a personalized medicine startup. He holds a PhD/DPhil in Zoology from the University of Oxford and is an alumnus of the Johns Hopkins Emerging Leaders in Biosecurity Initiative.  

Chris joined Open Philanthropy in 2016. He is focused on identifying and evaluating potential philanthropic opportunities in various aspects of basic and applied scientific research. Chris has been a professor at UC Berkeley, Stanford University, and Michigan State University. He has published more than 230 research papers in biochemistry, and in cell and molecular biology. He is a member of the US National Academy of Sciences and the Royal Society of London and has received numerous awards for his scientific contributions. He has a Ph.D in genetics and a B.Sc. in mathematics from the University of Alberta.  

Bastian has been working with Open Philanthropy since September 2018. He previously worked as a buy-side analyst for J.P. Morgan Asset Management’s European Equities team. He holds a BPhil and DPhil in philosophy from the University of Oxford and a BA in philosophy from Cambridge University.

Ben joined Open Philanthropy in September 2023. Previously, he was an independent researcher in global health and biosecurity and a Charity Entrepreneurship incubatee. He has an MD, BSc in Neuroscience, and BA in Philosophy and International Relations from the University of Sydney.

Anna joined Open Philanthropy in March 2023. Previously, she worked in strategy and operations roles on two California ballot measures, and as a project manager at CovidActNow. She received a B.A. from Vanderbilt University and completed a Postbac at Columbia University.

Maura joined the operations team in June 2022, and currently serves as the Interim Director of Internal Operations. Previously, she led our Business Operations and Recruiting teams. Before joining Open Philanthropy, Maura was executive director of a longstanding social service nonprofit in New Mexico. She previously worked as a hedge fund researcher and financial analyst, and has a B.A. in Economics from Lewis & Clark College.

Benjamin joined Open Philanthropy in August 2023. He works on identifying outstanding opportunities for growing the forecasting community, and on improving Open Philantropy's internal forecasting. Before joining Open Philanthropy, Benjamin worked as an economics postdoc at the Global Priorities Institute (Oxford University). He holds a BA in Philosophy and Economics from the University of Bayreuth, an MPhil in Economics from the Tinbergen Institute, and a PhD in Economics from Erasmus University Rotterdam.

Danny joined Open Philanthropy in June 2018. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he co-founded Elm Gives, a micro-donation technology platform for emerging donors and effective nonprofits. Prior to that, he served as a Student Programs Associate for the Ocean Discovery Institute. He has a B.S. in Environmental Science and Applied Sustainability from UC San Diego.  

Michael joined Open Philanthropy in June 2024. Previously, he was a Researcher at Giving What We Can, a core- and lead-organiser of EAGxAustralia 2019 and 2022 respectively and a professional poker player. He graduated in 2021 with a Bachelor of Arts (majoring in Philosophy) from the University of Sydney, where he was President of his university's EA society.

Jacob oversees Open Philanthropy’s science and science policy programs. Previously, he co-founded Pie, acquired by Snapchat. He was a Henry Fellow at Harvard University, and has a B.A. from the University of Cambridge.

Cari co-founded Good Ventures with her husband Dustin Moskovitz (co-founder of Facebook and Asana) in 2011 and is the foundation’s President. She helps set the strategy and oversee the work of Open Philanthropy, which is the primary basis for Good Ventures’ grant decisions. Previously, Cari was a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, where she covered a range of topics, including corporate management, the California economy, and enterprise technology. She has a B.A. in Political Science from Yale University.

Rebca joined the Operations team in May 2023. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, she worked as a Senior Project Management Consultant at IBM in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. Rebca has a B.S. in Mathematics and B.S. in Philosophy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Jennifer joined Open Philanthropy in August 2022. She holds a B.S. in Applied Statistics from Otto-von-Guericke University Magdeburg, where she co-founded an Effective Altruism university chapter.

Chris joined Open Philanthropy in March 2022. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he was a research assistant at the Federal Reserve Board, where he worked on international financial stability. As part of his work at the Fed, he developed an R package, fedmatch, for linking datasets without common identifiers. He’s passionate about reading, and maintains a blog on reading the classics. He graduated with a B.S. in Physics from the Rochester Institute of Technology in 2019.

Emily joined Open Philanthropy in April 2023 and supports Open Philanthropy's Salesforce implementation and user base. Previously, she was the Salesforce Administrator at Boston-based educational non-profit Facing History & Ourselves. She holds a B.A. in Sociology from the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Luke joined Open Philanthropy in September 2023. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, he was the Director of IT at The WorkSmart Group, where he worked to securely scale a rapidly growing operation and build a data and analytics team. As part of his work at WorkSmart, he used Python to leverage datasets across several software packages. He's an obsessive reader and always loves a good book recommendation. He has a B.A. in History and a B.S. in Computer Science.

Josephine became a member of the Finance team at Open Philanthropy in May 2023. Prior to joining Open Philanthropy, she worked in finance and accounting roles at the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, Grant Thornton, and most recently Blue Origin. Josephine holds a Bachelor’s degree in Accounting from Rockhurst University and a Master’s degree in Accounting from the University of Arizona.

Hannah joined the Business Operations team in May 2024. She graduated with a B.S. in Communication Studies, Entrepreneurship, and Marketing from Northwestern University.

Heather joined Open Philanthropy in August 2016. Her goal is to identify philanthropic opportunities in transformative basic and applied research that have important societal impact. She was director of the Bakar Fellows Program for faculty entrepreneurs at UC Berkeley, a senior strategic advisor at the Energy Biosciences Institute at UC Berkeley, and an assistant professor at Michigan Technological University. She received a B.S. in biology from Michigan Technological University and a Ph.D. in biochemistry and molecular biology from Oregon Health and Science University, and was an NIH post-doctoral fellow at Stanford University.

Claire oversees the Biosecurity and Pandemic Preparedness team and makes grants across Open Philanthropy’s efforts to reduce global catastrophic risks. She joined Open Philanthropy in August 2015 as a Research Analyst and went on to lead our Global Catastrophic Risks Capacity Building team. Claire has a B.S. and M.S. in Earth Systems from Stanford University, where she conducted research related to the science, ethics, and governance of solar geoengineering.

Qurat joined Open Philanthropy in June 2024. She previously was a course facilitator for AI safety and AI governance courses and a teaching assistant for an ML bootcamp. She graduated from the London School of Economics with a BSc in Mathematics and Economics.

Philip joined Open Philanthropy in August 2022. Previously, he spent over three years recruiting strategy and transformation leaders as an executive search consultant, and also worked in audit for PwC. He graduated from the University of Oxford with a B.A. in Classics.

Catherine joined Open Philanthropy in October 2024. Previously, she was a fellow at Schmidt Futures, where she supported a variety of nonprofits with product management, operations, and research. Catherine has a B.A. in Computer Science and a B.A. in Sociology from Cornell University.