Cait O’Donnell is a Learning Manager with the Gender and Social Equity Practice within WRI's Center for Equitable Development. She works across the institute to broaden its work on gender and social equity by providing capacity building and technical assistance and supporting mainstreaming efforts.

Previously, Cait was a Technical Advisor for BRAC’s Ultra-Poor Graduation Initiative. She designed, implemented, and advised inclusive pro-poor social and economic policy, programs, and evaluations for governments, international organizations, development banks, and civil society. Key areas of her work included poverty reduction, social protection, sustainable livelihoods and economic empowerment, financial inclusion, gender equality, and women’s empowerment.

Before that, she worked on the World Economic Forum’s Food Systems and Agriculture Initiative, promoting public-private cooperation to improve the sustainability of global food systems and the livelihoods of smallholder farmers through stakeholder engagement, research, and strategy development. While pursuing her graduate degree, Cait worked with the World Wildlife Fund in Myanmar on energy access and rural electrification. She first joined WRI as a Research Analyst / Program Coordinator for the Access Initiative, which aims to ensure that citizens have the right and ability to influence decisions about their natural resources. She also served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine.

Cait holds a Master of Arts in International Affairs with a focus on energy and environmental policy from Columbia University’s School of International and Public Affairs, and a Bachelor of Arts in English Literature and Global Poverty and Practice from the University of California, Berkeley.