Nancy MacPherson’s experience spans four decades of leadership in international development, strategic planning, impact, and monitoring and evaluation in Asia, Africa, Canada and the USA where she has worked for Foundations, not-for-profit organizations and multilateral agencies. She established and led the impact monitoring and evaluation function at IUCN-The World Conservation Union (1995-2007), the Rockefeller Foundation (2008-2018), and the Mastercard Foundation (2020-2023). In these roles she played an executive management role reporting to Boards and managing teams focused on the impact of investment portfolios in climate change, agriculture, enterprise, financial inclusion, impact investing, resilience, renewable energy and inclusive economies.

While at the Rockefeller Foundation she led the start-up of the global Community of Practice (COP) for Climate Change Resilience Measurement and Learning, currently managed by the Stockholm Resilience Centre. Nancy served as the Chair of the Effective Philanthropy and Learning Committee at the Laudes Foundation (2019-2022) and advised the President of the Tinker Foundation (Latin America) on their Theory of Change and their Strategy and MEL function. She has served on the Technical Reference Group for the World Bank’s Climate Adaptation Fund, the External Advisory Panel for the Green Climate Fund (GCF)’s Overall Effectiveness Review, as a Board member of GIB, and an advisor to global south impact networks including the International Development Evaluation Association (IDEAS), the Africa Evaluation Association (AfrEA) and the World Bank Regional Centres for Learning and Results (CLEAR) in Africa, Asia and Latin America.

Nancy was a key member of the teaching faculty at the World Bank’s summer International Program for Development Evaluation Training (IPDET) from 2001-2011. She is the inaugural recipient of the 2015 American Evaluation Association Award for Enhancing the Public Good. She lives in New York City and spends her summers on the east coast of Canada.