About
Dr Jessica Espey is Associate Professor in the School of Geography and Environmental Sciences and is Deputy Director, Research for World Pop. Her research focuses on governance and epistemology, specifically how data and diverse forms of evidence shape the international governance of sustainable development and climate change. At World Pop she works to support the development and uptake of high quality research and methods for the construction of open and high-resolution geospatial data on population distributions, demographic and dynamics.
She has two decades of professional experience working in international development, within think-tanks, charities and the United Nations. From 2014-2020 she was a Director of the UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network and prior to that she served as an Adviser to President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf of Liberia.
She has written extensively on the governance of sustainable development, with a particularly focus on monitoring, accountability and data systems. Much of her policy work is available via sdsntrends.org. She has further interests in and published work on global urban governance.