Joanna Springer is the resilience specialist for the Fish Innovation Lab. As a Resilience and Market Systems Research Specialist with RTI International’s Food Security and Agriculture division, she leads the design and implementation of studies measuring market system resilience. She contributes to design of resilience programming through theory of change sessions, workshops with field staff, conducting research and disseminating findings. She is responsible for advising special studies and evaluation efforts related to social inclusion, resilience, and market-system strengthening in East Africa and the Caribbean.
Prior to joining the lab, Springer designed and launched the action-learning component of a $30 million USAID-funded community engagement and stabilization project in Yemen. Springer also developed and implemented a rigorous learning agenda for an evidence-based community-driven development methodology in South Sudan. She has developed a social capital index for measuring community engagement outcomes in multiple countries, including a $10 million USAID social cohesion and reconciliation project in Sri Lanka. From 2012-2014, Springer was a researcher for a rule of law advancement project in the Arab Gulf for the Qatar National Research Fund.
Springer facilitates theory of change design and learning activities for international development projects; designs MEL strategies and measurement plans; develops data collection instruments and protocols; manages and writes baseline, midterm, and end-line assessments; and supports monitoring and evaluation system start-up and management.
Springer has published reports, articles, op‐eds, and peer-reviewed journal articles from her research. She has a master’s degree in public policy and administration from the University of Massachusetts, Amherst and a bachelor’s degree in political sociology from Hampshire College.