Irene Velez

Irene Velez is a director in the monitoring, evaluation, research, learning, and adaptation (MERLA) practice. Irene has over 12 years of experience designing and implementing impact and performance evaluations, spanning multiple sectors and their intersection with gender. She is an expert in quantitative and qualitative research methods, data collection and analysis, and has experience conducting economic assessments, including constraints analysis and cost-benefit analysis. She also specializes in leading impact evaluation design workshops, where she facilitates stakeholder engagement to build capacity on evaluation methods and strengthen buy-in for rigorous evaluations. Prior to joining Panagora, Irene worked at Management Systems International, where she provided technical leadership on dozens of evaluations, evaluation syntheses, and dissemination activities for USAID, MCC and USDOL, including leading the first quality review of impact evaluations at USAID. Previously, she worked at Innovations for Poverty Action, where she led the implementation of a large-scale randomized controlled trial to measure the impacts of microcredit for women in northern Mexico. Irene holds a masters’ degree in international development policy from the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University and a bachelors’ degree in economics from Wellesley College. Born and raised in Bolivia, Irene is bilingual in Spanish and English.