Alix Peterson Zwane

Alix Peterson Zwane is Newhouse Visiting Professor of the Practice and executive in residence with the James E. Rogers Energy Access Project at Duke University at the Nicholas Institute for Energy, Environment, and Sustainability.

Prior to joining the Nicholas Institute, Alix was the first chief executive officer of the Global Innovation Fund, a hybrid investment vehicle that accelerates evidence-based innovation through early-stage debt and equity investing, as well as grantmaking. GIF is backed by leading bilateral aid agencies, corporates, and foundations and contributes to filling the pioneer gap between development assistance and development finance.

Alix has over 20 years of experience advancing the agenda of evidence-based aid and international development as an investor, a social entrepreneur, and an innovator. She was the first employee and executive director at Evidence Action, a nonprofit that develops service delivery models to scale evidence-based programs. Alix has also advocated for evidence-based philanthropy at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Google.org, and served on the faculty of the department of agricultural and resource economics at University of California, Berkeley.

Alix holds a Ph.D. in public policy from Harvard University and is a World Economic Forum Young Global Leader. She has served appointments as a non-resident fellow at the Center for Global Development and at the Jackson School of Global Affairs at Yale University.