Paula Dias

Paula Dias is a senior researcher at AIR with over 10 years of experience in qualitative research, including ethnography and participatory methods. At AIR, Dr. Dias leads and contributes to a variety of mixed-methods evaluations and studies on the topics of social protection, education, early childhood development, and agriculture. Her evaluation work focuses primarily on Sub-Saharan Africa but also includes Latin America, South Asia, and Southeast Asia. 

Dr. Dias currently manages a mixed-methods evaluation of a universal cash transfer program in Madagascar and leads qualitative research on child-sensitive social protection programming in Somalia. She also leads participatory research in the U.S., including a co-designed study on community engagement around public education in Louisville, KY, and an ethnographic study about parenting and early childhood supports in Tulsa, OK. Before joining AIR, Dr. Dias conducted extensive ethnographic research in Brazil and Latin America. She is fluent in Portuguese and French, and proficient in Spanish.