Michael Cooke is VisionSpring’s Global Director of Monitoring, Evaluation, Research and Learning. He has over 20 years’ experience in data, research and evidence roles spanning academia, the UK civil service, healthcare and mental health non-profits, international development and social justice. He spent 5 years as the Research Director at GiveDirectly, a rapidly-growing, evidence-focussed NGO that delivers unconditional cash transfers to some of the world's poorest households. There, he led the organization’s involvement in more than a dozen randomized controlled trials. Michael was most recently the Director of Research and Learning at the Centre for Knowledge Equity, an organization which seeks to elevate the wisdom and leadership of individuals with lived experience of social injustice, so that all forms of knowledge can be valued equitably as we work towards a more just world.

Michael holds a bachelor's degree in Experimental Psychology from Oxford University, and a PhD in neuroscience from King's College London. Michael is also a Fellow of the UK's Clore Social Leadership Programme. He is embracing the many inevitabilities of middle-age, including presbyopia and getting really into cycling.