Creating Your Own Opportunities: An IDEC Alumni Spotlight on Jennifer Sturdy

From Volleyball Hall of Famer to IDEC Graduate

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Driven by her talent and love for volleyball, Jennifer attended Dominican University on a student-athlete scholarship, where she earned a degree in business. Fun fact: her 96-97 team was recently inducted into the university's Athletics Hall of Fame! After graduating, Jennifer began working for a translation company where she learned she was a great project manager but a not-so-great salesperson. Like many IDEC students, she was eager to discover work that could be both meaningful and impactful.  

"This was the winter of 2003. As a young adult, I was newly exposed to this complicated world and wondered -  how on earth do I find work that focuses on solving some of our very challenging problems?"

Coming across a development program in 2003 felt like entering a new world of questions and opportunity. According to Jennifer, the IDEC program felt like the right path due to its hands-on approach. Getting the opportunity to learn in the real world through the summer field research and apply the learned skills on a real project were the most attractive elements of this program to her. 

Jennifer describes her experience in IDEC as constant learning, and names Prof. Bruce Wydick and Prof. Elizabeth Katz as mentors who created a learning environment where it was okay not to know the answer and work to “[build] up your confidence to ask more questions and dig into the unknown a little bit.” Her favorite memory from her time at USF was her summer field research project, where she spent about 3 months working across Mexico, collecting survey data on the Oportunidades program in collaboration with fellow student researchers from IDEC and UC Berkeley. Jennifer credits this as one of her most impactful learning experiences, as it allowed her to be involved in the entire research process, from designing the survey to collecting and analyzing the data.

"Preparing for field work in the summer of 2004 was probably the most impactful part of IDEC, because we had to take the study from design to actually well-done implementation. I think that was the first class and experience I had where I developed a strong understanding of just how important the details of implementation are."

Stepping Stones in an Exciting Career in Research

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Just one week after her IDEC graduation, Jennifer’s summer field research and her relationship with the UC Berkeley student researchers propelled her into exciting work at the World Bank as a research assistant and research field coordinator. There, she spent 2005-2011 working in the field in Rwanda on a public health project utilizing IDEC field research methods. 

Afterwards, she moved on to work as a Director for the Millennium Challenge Corporation, focusing on program evaluation of “anything from paving a road in rural Tanzania to expanding transmission and distribution lines for electricity.”. Jennifer eventually returned to California in 2015 and joined the Center for Global Action (CEGA) as a Director at the Berkeley Initiative for Transparency in the Social Sciences (BITSS).

"I joined BITSS because I had just spent the previous 10-plus years working on building research into program implementation for evidence-based policymaking, and realized we need to turn the lens back on ourselves and start asking ourselves some tough questions - When are we potentially introducing bias into our research? How are we examining our own methods to make sure that the evidence being generated is as credible and replicable as possible?"

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After working with the California State Government for two years, Jennifer currently works as Research Director at the Haas School of Business. Here she facilitates how research insights reach policymakers and business leaders while supporting Haas faculty and their staff in advancing their research programs and activities. She especially appreciates being able to “get creative in this role and work with students”. Twenty years after graduating from IDEC, her career has moved from a focus on international development to one that focuses as much on local as international issues.

A Message to IDEC Students

Understanding this is a difficult time for international development, Jennifer urges current and prospective IDEC students to keep an open mind and stay hopeful. Within the IDEC program, “there’s a lot of exposure to really important learning and tools that can be applied in many contexts”, she says, “whether it's rigorous econometric methods and understanding the concept of a counterfactual or a focus on building evidence-based programs,  this training can help you become a critical thinker, whether or not your path takes you into international development or something different.” She goes on to encourage looking at everything as a learning opportunity, emphasizing that change is a pathway to improvement in our work.

Overall, Jennifer thanks the IDEC program for being “the first opportunity to create [her] own opportunities” and for giving her some of her greatest relationships. Jennifer is still in touch with a group from the class of ‘05 and urges students to “look around and make sure you appreciate and build those ties, because some of those people are going to be people you know for the rest of your life.”