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

Michelle Kaffenberger is an applied research consultant specializing in using research to better understand and improve the lives of the poor. With 10-plus years of experience in international development, she has designed, led and advised on dozens of quantitative and qualitative research initiatives to produce meaningful and actionable insights for the World Bank, the Consultative Group to Assist the Poor (CGAP), the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, the United Nations’ International Telecommunications Union and the Grameen Foundation, among others. Her work focuses on financial inclusion, digital financial services, international education and the role the private sector can play in achieving development outcomes. Previously, she was research manager and lead quantitative analyst for large-scale nationally representative surveys on financial inclusion in eight countries across Africa and Asia, and prior to that she established a new base of operations for an international nonprofit organization in India. She is skilled in quantitative and qualitative data analysis, including econometrics, and earned a master’s degree in development economics from Vanderbilt University.