Isha Varma
As the inaugural MEL Director, Isha steers the Girls First Fund to capture impact and strategically inform effective grantmaking. The research and learning conducted under her direction and in partnership with the GFF grantees will capture how GFF’s grantees are tackling child marriage and gender inequality in their communities.
Having worked at the intersection of monitoring and evaluation and women’s health and rights at both grantmaking and implementing organizations, Isha brings an ability to measure the impact of a large Collaborative that funds small grassroots-led organizations. Prior to working on the Girls First Fund at Geneva Global, Isha worked with large humanitarian organizations such as Relief International, Plan International, and Americares, as well as the Packard Foundation’s SRHR Program. She has also consulted for IYAFP, an entirely local and volunteer-led network of young leaders working on women’s health globally. While her expertise is monitoring and evaluation, she has also held roles in operations and communications. She therefore employs a lens that looks at data capture and analysis as part of a holistic process responsible to multiple stakeholders.
Isha has worked extensively in India, Ethiopia, and Liberia, and has also worked in Tanzania, Nepal, and the Philippines while supporting other global portfolios. She holds a Master’s in Public Health with a concentration in Evaluation and Measurement of Global Health Systems and Development from Tulane University’s School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine. She holds a B.A. in Psychology from UCLA.