Sonaly Patel is a program officer at Results for Development (R4D), where she works across a number of education projects. She has recently provided research, analysis, and project management support on the feasibility study for a Global Book Fund (now renamed the Global Book Alliance), and previously built partnerships and managed a range of relationships for R4D’s Center for Education Innovations. Sonaly also supports programmatic impact evaluations and donor strategy development at R4D. She has contributed to the evaluation of a nationwide citizen-led education assessment in Pakistan, and helped author a donor-commissioned report on costing and financing upper secondary education.
Prior to R4D, Ms. Patel worked with a number of nonprofits and social enterprises focused on creating economic and educational opportunity for low-income communities. Most recently, shecoordinated global expansion, operations, and partnerships at One Degree Solar, a Kenyan technology start-up. Among other roles, she has also served as an IDEX Fellow in Social Enterprise in India where she co-led a skills training and micro-business development initiative.
Ms. Patel holds a bachelor’s degree in international business from the R.H. Smith School of Business at the University of Maryland, and has pursued further studies in international development, conflict management and social entrepreneurship.