Dr. Ruth Levine oversees The David and Lucile Packard Foundation’s work to build just and equitable societies as vice president of Just Societies initiative and leads our commitment to learning and impact as chief learning officer.

Ruth is a development economist with more than three decades of experience working on the design and implementation of policies and programs in global health and education, social protection, and gender equity. She served as CEO of IDinsight, a mission-driven advisory, data analytics, and research organization from 2020-2023; and led the Global Development and Population Program at the William and Flora Hewlett Foundation from 2011-2019. Previously, she was a deputy assistant administrator in the Bureau of Policy, Planning, and Learning at the U.S. Agency for International Development.

Prior to her government service, Ruth spent a decade at the Center for Global Development as a senior fellow and as the Center’s first vice president for programs and operations; at CGD, she established the global health policy program and led a series of ideas-to-action working groups. Earlier in her career, she designed and evaluated health and education projects at the Inter-American Development Bank and the World Bank. She has worked extensively in Latin America and the Caribbean, South Asia, and sub-Saharan Africa.

Ruth holds a doctorate jointly in economics and demography from Johns Hopkins University and a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University.