Dr Hiren Nisar (He/Him)

Dr. Hiren Nisar have more than a decade of experience in managing interdisciplinary teams conducting rigorous and high-quality research of social and economic policies and programs that purport to improve the economic and social well-being of students, youths, families and workers. His core focus areas include applied economics, public policy and large-scale data analysis and modeling. He has a strong technical background in
econometrics, machine learning, survey and administrative data collection and analysis.

Previously, Dr. Nisar was the Director of Analytics and Senior Economist, as well as part of the Senior Management Team leading projects in the Social, Behavioral and Methodological Sciences and Education practice areas at 2M Research, a small public policy consulting firm in US. Throughout his career, he has worked closely with various government agencies and clients, and currently lead projects in economic
research across US Department of Housing and Urban Development, US Department of Education, US Department of Labor, US Department of Agriculture, and US Department of Health and Human and Services.

He has effectively and successfully managed several concurrent projects starting from writing research funding applications and grants to conducting cutting-edge research, producing reports and briefs, disseminating findings to a diverse audience, and engaging client and
stakeholders. At 2M, I have been able to identify new business opportunities raising funding for projects, help spearhead our effective sales and market penetration strategies, and find relevant partners to win projects across existing and new clients/funding streams. Overall, he brought in projects valued more than $10 million dollars over the past six years. 

Prior to joining 2M, Dr. Nisar was an Economist at Abt Associates for seven years where I played a key role on several research projects in the area of education, nutrition, welfare, labor, and international economic development. His prior research involved empirical designs such as random assignment studies including impact and outcome analysis, non-experimental and rapid-cycle evaluations to guide policy and decision
making by carrying out top quality research and communicating the results with policymakers.

His articles have been published in the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management and the American Educational Research Journal and several of my authored reports have been published on various government agencies websites. He has also presented at several public policy conferences
over the years and served as the Program Chair for the Research on Evaluation SIG at American Educational Research Association for three years from 2019-2022. 

In addition to my professional accomplishments, Dr. Nisar earned a bachelor’s degree in Computer Science from Mumbai University, a Master of Science in Industrial Engineering and Operations Research from Berkeley, and a PhD in Economics from University of Wisconsin, Madison. Recently, I have taken several machine learning and data science certificate courses online to learn and adapt to new econometric techniques being used.