Michael Kinzer

Background

About Michael Kinzer

I lead applied research to inform strategy for an Indian NGO whose programming directly reaches over 1.5% of the world's newborn children. For several years, I've done similar work with NGOs working on gun violence in greater Philadelphia, international human rights, and the livelihoods of goat farmers in India's Uttar Pradesh. Across most of these roles, I have led 'monitoring & evaluation'- the systematic investigation of an organization's program implementation and impact. I am currently looking to relocate to the United States late summer 2025 for (positive!) personal reasons. I am also considering a shift in my career to make use of my training and experiences in economics and policy. After having grown up in Arkansas, I've spent over 14 years living, studying, and working across the USA and the world. I have lived & worked in India for 3 years; studied Arabic in Jordan in college; lived in NYC, Philadelphia, DC, & Baltimore; and been able to speak Spanish, Hindi, and Arabic with high degrees of proficiency. Academically, I have two master's degrees: an MPA in Economic Development from Columbia University, an MPH in Statistics from Johns Hopkins, and a BA in International Studies from American University. Altogether, this means I'm comfortable running econometric analysis in R, writing evidence summaries for policy makers, conducting interviews with farmers in Hindi, giving professional presentations, understanding how geopolitical uncertainty will influence the USD-INR exchange rate, and helping organization identify KPIs. P.S. Some ‘fun facts’ about me: I've also worked a lot of parttime jobs over the years to supplement nonprofit salaries. Much of that work was actually working as a tour guide! Across 7 years, I've worked*- as a bike tour guide in DC - as a Segway tour guide in DC - as a Segway tour guide in Philadelphia- as a bus tour guide in DC.*tour guide jobs ranked from 'most fun' to 'least fun'