Leah Marie Lucas

Research Manager

Leah Marie Lucas is committed to tackling the world’s most pressing challenges, with innovative and scalable solutions that work. Throughout her career, she has combined a deep understanding of local realities with global relationships and finance to transform needs into opportunities. She is experienced in bringing together diverse stakeholders and brokering win-win partnerships that support progress toward the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Lucas has specialized knowledge in the areas of program design, implementation, global project management, and evaluation of projects seeking to advance agriculture, food security and nutrition, rural economic livelihoods, social enterprise, gender, and humanitarian response. In the private sector, she has supported corporate social responsibility initiatives and served as a strategic advisor for community relations and impact. She is experienced in recruiting, mentoring, and leading international project teams working toward human-centered and community-driven positive impact.

Lucas holds an MSc in African Development from the London School of Economics and Political Science and a BA in Poverty and Progress in the Americas from Grinnell College. She is a native English speaker, fluent in Spanish and Portuguese, with high-intermediate French. She is an experienced globe trotter with a high degree of situational awareness and intercultural appreciation. When she is not advancing her fluency in French, she can be found perusing an open-air market somewhere and befriending the sellers.