Paul Thissen

Paul provides technical and management leadership of and support for impact evaluations, synthesis, and other evidence programs. He is the lead author for 3ie’s 2020 Hindsight campaign blogs. Paul also supports the production of communication materials to effectively convey research findings and 3ie accomplishments to a wide variety of audiences.

Paul is a social scientist with experience as a multi-method researcher and a news reporter. His research employs both quantitative and qualitative methods, with a regional focus on Central Africa and the Sahel. He spent five years as a daily newspaper reporter in the San Francisco Bay Area, covering state and local governments in California. He has been associated with 3ie as a consultant and prior to that worked as an analyst with Freedom House, and his research has been supported by the National Science Foundation and the US Institute of Peace.

Paul holds a PhD and MA in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley, and a BS in Economics and Journalism from Northwestern University.