Sharon Barnhardt

Sharon Barnhardt is the Director – Research at the Centre for Social and Behavioural Change at Ashoka University. Her research focuses on issues of urban development and rural health in India, through the use of natural and randomized evaluations. She is currently conducting an evaluation to improve the sustainability of community sanitation in urban Odisha and estimating the impact of selling iron-fortified iodized salt on anemia in women, men, and children in rural Bihar. Her earlier research studies the impact of government housing programs on economic mobility, inter-religious attitudes, and social networks. Her research is funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, 3ie, the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (formerly DFID), and the US National Institutes of Health. Prior to CESS, she was an Assistant Professor at the Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad. Sharon is also an affiliate of the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA).

Sharon has served as a lecturer at J-PAL training events.

She earned her PhD from Harvard University and also holds an MPA from Princeton University.