Diana is a Data Scientist in IEG’s Methods Advisory Function and the managing editor of IEG’s Methods Paper Series. In her role, she provides advisory support to evaluation teams on research design and methods and supports IEG staff’s evaluation skills development through the Foundations of Evaluation Design curriculum. Her methodological focus includes strengthening the use of causal inference and causal analysis in evaluation practice, and broadening the range of data and methods used in IEG’s evaluations. 

By training, Diana is a social scientist with expertise in economic and foreign policy analysis, as well as in qualitative and quantitative methods. Prior to joining the World Bank Group in 2023, she held fellowships at Stanford University’s Asia-Pacific Research Center and Harvard University’s Weatherhead Center for International Affairs, having received a Ph.D. in Political Science from Princeton University. Her research applied quantitative methods to study the role of bureaucratic capacity and public-private partnerships in economic and trade policy formulation. Her work has also been motivated by an interest in the political economy of East Asia and Japan, where she conducted extensive fieldwork.