Keynote
Indermit Gill, chief economist of the World Bank Group and senior vice president for Development Economics
Before starting this position on September 1, 2022, Gill served as the World Bank’s vice president for equitable growth, finance, and institutions, where he helped shape the Bank’s response to the extraordinary series of shocks that have hit developing economies since 2020. Between 2016 and 2021, he was a professor of public policy at Duke University and non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution’s Global Economy and Development program.
Gill led the World Bank’s influential 2009 World Development Report on economic geography. His work includes introducing the concept of the “middle-income trap” to describe how countries stagnate after reaching a certain level of income. He has published extensively on key policy issues facing developing countries—among other things, sovereign debt vulnerabilities, green growth and natural-resource wealth, labor markets, and poverty and inequality.
Gill has also taught at Georgetown University and the University of Chicago. He holds a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Chicago.
Panelists
Laurie Ashley, climate adaptation and resilience advisor, Center for Resilience, USAID Bureau for Resilience, Environment and Food Security
Laurie Ashley facilitates resilience and adaptation outcomes in agriculture, food security, migration, land tenure, sustainable land management, and governance, policy, and planning. Ashley has worked collaboratively to address climate risks and adaptation solutions in complex social-ecological contexts for over 20 years.
Nicole Franz, equitable livelihoods team leader, Fisheries and Aquaculture Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN
Nicole Franz is a development economist with 18 years of experience in intergovernmental organizations. She holds a Master in International Cooperation and Project Design from University La Sapienza, Rome and a Master in Economic and Cultural Cooperation and Human Rights in the Mediterranean Region. From 2003 to 2008 she was a consultant for the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD). In 2009-10 she was fishery planning analyst at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) in Paris, focusing on fisheries certification. Since 2011 she has worked for the FAO Fisheries and Aquaculture Division where she coordinates the implementation of the Voluntary Guidelines for Securing Sustainable Small-Scale Fisheries in the Context of Food Security and Poverty Eradication (SSF Guidelines) with a focus on inclusive policy processes and stakeholder empowerment. Since 2021 she has led the Equitable Livelihoods team.
Christian Lara, strategic planning officer and head of Resident Coordinator Office, UN
Christian Lara is an international relations specialist with over 17 years of experience with the United Nations, focusing on political and humanitarian affairs. His work includes implementing the Ottawa Treaty, coordinating the global Ebola response in West Africa, and supporting peace agreements in Colombia and South Sudan. After completing a mid-career fellowship at Duke University, Chris became a senior policy advisor with the Duke Global Health Institute, where he emphasized the science-policy nexus and the role of research institutions in achieving the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.
While at Duke, Lara earned multiple graduate certificates, including in Latin American Studies from CLACS, Communications and Leadership from the Fuqua School of Business, and Peace and Conflict Studies from UNC Chapel Hill. He began his career as a protection specialist with the U.S. Government, then transitioned to graduate studies before joining the United Nations. His UN experience includes roles at UN Headquarters and in the field with UN-OCHA, UN-DPKO, WHO, and UNMISS, focusing on emergency coordination and early recovery efforts. Currently, he is a senior coordination and strategic planning officer with the UN Resident Coordinators system and most recently served as head of the Resident Coordination Office in Syria.
Marie McAuliffe, head, Migration Research and Publications Division, International Organization for Migration
Marie McAuliffe is the head of the Migration Research & Publications Division at IOM headquarters in Geneva and editor of IOM’s flagship World Migration Report. She is an international migration specialist with over 25 years of experience in migration as a practitioner, program manager, senior government official and researcher.
McAuliffe has researched, published and edited widely in academic and policy spheres on migration and is on the editorial boards of scientific journals International Migration, Migration Studies and Migration and Development, and is an associate editor of the Harvard Data Science Review.
McAuliffe is a senior associate (non-resident) at the Centre for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) in Washington DC, senior fellow at the Global Migration Centre at the Graduate Institute in Geneva and a Sir Roland Wilson Fellow at the School of Demography at the Australian National University (ANU). She is a member of MIT’s Global Technology Review Panel, IUSSP’s panel on international migration and curates the World Economic Forum’s Migration Transformation Map.
McAuliffe was awarded a Sir Roland Wilson scholarship in 2015 to complete doctoral research at ANU on irregular migration. She is the 2018 recipient of the Charles Price Prize in demography for outstanding doctoral research.
Marie-Soleil Turmel, science advisor, Latin America and Caribbean Region, Catholic Relief Services
Marie-Soleil Turmel is the scientific advisor for the Catholic Relief Services Water Smart Agriculture Platform in the Latin America and Caribbean Region. She is an agronomist/soil scientist with 15 years of experience conducting research and extension to promote soil health, productivity, and climate resilience of smallholder farming systems in Latin America. Before joining CRS, she worked as a research scientist for the International Maize and Wheat Improvement Center (CIMMYT) and Bioversity International. Turmel holds a Ph.D. in Soil Science from McGill University and an M.Sc. in Agronomy from the University of Manitoba.
