Jon Kurtz is a Research Affiliate at ISDC. His current work with ISDC involves co-designing an evidence facility that would work alongside operational teams in crisis settings to support high-stakes decisions on targeting, assistance design, and transitions toward recovery.
Jon most recently served as Senior Director for Research and Learning at Mercy Corps, where he led the agency’s global research and evidence function. He is a seasoned leader in research and evaluation, leveraging evidence to drive strategy and learning in international humanitarian and development agencies.
Jon’s research examines how development and humanitarian action can reduce conflict and strengthen resilience to climate change, natural disasters, and violence. He led research and policy engagement to support the Global Fragility Act, shape major donor policies on fragility, conflict, and resilience. Jon’s work has helped institutionalize a harmonized cost-analysis methodology within major humanitarian organizations.
He has published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability, and think tank outlets including the Center for Global Development and ODI’s Humanitarian Exchange.
Jon’s work has spanned both emergency and longer-term development contexts, including extensive field experience in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Mozambique, Kenya, Uganda, and Zimbabwe. He received his M.Sc. with distinction in Management of Agricultural Knowledge Systems from Wageningen University.
He holds an M.Sc. in Management of Agricultural Knowledge Systems from Wageningen University.
