Joy Amulya has worked domestically and internationally for over 15 years to strengthen the practice and impact of community, health, education, and international development initiatives through evaluation and learning.

The primary focus of her work has been to apply her extensive training and experience in adult learning and social science research methods to improve practice, democratize evaluation and learning, and catalyze organizational adaptation and impact.

In her current role as senior monitoring, evaluation, and learning advisor in the Center for Applied Learning and Impact, Joy leads the Strategic Evaluation and Learning initiative, which carries out projects and activities that support IREX in becoming more systematic, coordinated, and intentional about data, evaluation, and learning. In addition, she supports assessment of IREX’s organizational impact and provides technical support for program evaluations.

Prior to IREX, she operated Learning for Innovation, an international and domestic consulting practice supporting change-making organizations in program evaluation, impact assessment, and organizational learning. Her projects included building the capacity of a community-based pediatric HIV-AIDS program in Zambia, developing a monitoring system for village-based orphan care projects across northern Namibia, and evaluating USAID’s Global Development Lab’s Higher Education Solutions Network. Her prior professional roles include senior associate with Community Science, specializing in evaluation of community and systems change; research scientist in MIT’s Department of Urban Studies and Planning; and assistant director of MIT’s Center for Reflective Community Practice, where she created learning methods for social change practitioners.

Joy has a doctorate in human development, a master’s in human development, and a master’s in statistics from Harvard University. She earned her bachelor’s degree from the University of California at San Diego with a double major in linguistics and psychology. She has studied French, Spanish, Russian, German, and Italian, and has lived in Zambia and Nepal.