Shailesh Rai works with NGOs and central and state governments in India to disseminate policy lessons from J-PAL’s research, scale up successful programs, and identify new evaluations. Previously, he was principal investigator on a randomized evaluation of the impacts of a sanitation project in rural Orissa, conducted by Duke University. He has also worked for five years as a print and television journalist in India, including stints at CNN-IBN and The New Indian Express.

Shailesh holds a master’s degree in public policy from the Terry Sanford School of Public Policy at Duke University, where he received the Richard Stubbing fellowship and Outstanding Student award. He studied law at the National Law School of India University, Bangalore, and journalism at the Asian College of Journalism, Chennai.