NextBillion - An Initiative of the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan

Heather Esper is Senior Program Manager for the Performance Measurement and Improvement team at the William Davidson Institute at the University of Michigan (WDI). At WDI she leads the Performance Measurement Initiative, which specializes in designing and implementing customized measurement solutions to assess the economic, social, and environmental performance and outcomes of organizations and businesses operating in emerging economies. At WDI she works to create more value for these organizations by using this data to improve their effectiveness, scalability and sustainability. Esper co-developed a versatile tool and methodology with a multidimensional view of poverty that is used by ventures to assess their poverty alleviation outcomes.  She has worked with numerous businesses, social enterprises, nonprofits, government institutes, and foundations across sectors in Africa, Asia and Latin America to identify, measure and analyze their impacts and develop strategies to better meet the needs of their stakeholders. Esper holds a Master’s of Public Health and Bachelor’s of Science in Global Health from the University of Michigan. She can be followed on Twitter via @heatheresper.