Elena Matsui joined The Rockefeller Foundation in 2015. As a member of the Strategy and Strategic Planning team, she supported the Foundation’s teams in developing new programmatic initiatives and with strategic planning, risk mitigation, and impact assessment for initiatives currently in execution.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Ms. Matsui was a member of the World Bank’s Finance and Private Sector Development team based in Afghanistan where she was responsible for developing public-private partnerships that leveraged large extractive industry investments to support equitable economic growth and diversification throughout the country. She previously served as a Program Coordinator for UNICEF providing strategic planning and coordination support for a multi-year initiative designed to support marginalized youth living in conflict-affected contexts through educational and livelihoods programming. Earlier in her career, Ms. Matsui worked for Oxfam International where she developed strategies to improve the humanitarian response to the Syrian crisis through risk management, systems mapping and the creation of adaptive approaches.
Ms. Matsui holds a B.A. from Harvard University in Visual and Environmental Studies and a Masters of International Affairs in economic development and international conflict resolution from Columbia’s School of International and Public Affairs.
Authored Content
Oct 24 2016 Blog Post Addressing Post-Harvest Loss with Behavioral Science Nearly all of the game-changing agricultural innovations over the last 30 to 40 years – chemical fertilizer, improved seed varieties, resource conservation best practices, among others – have one thing in common: human behavior. For almost all of these success stories, farmer behavior change has been the “last-mile” achievement necessary for large-scale impact. To test […]
Jun 28 2016 Blog Post Surfacing Real Solutions for Reducing Food Loss Among Rural Tanzanian Farmers Major development initiatives grapple with economic, technological, and political considerations but often leave out an important piece of the puzzle: individual behavior. For instance, if deworming medications are distributed but few families utilize them, there may be little effect on the health of children in the community. If a new microfinance program offers loans to […]