Kirsten Pfeiffer leads the design and implementation of complex market systems and investment facilitation projects. She specializes in facilitative development approaches that catalyze locally led economic growth driven by public and private sector partners. Kirsten is currently the Deputy Chief of Party on the Ukraine Economic Resilience Activity (ERA), funded by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID). Kirsten leads the overall technical implementation of DAI’s support for the USAID Agriculture Resilience Initiative (AGRI)-Ukraine and ERA-funded infrastructural and process improvements at 42 western Ukraine borders.

Kirsten joined DAI’s Agriculture and Food Security team in 2018, after two and a half years in Rwanda as Deputy Chief of Party on a private sector-focused agriculture development project. She has experience in finance and development, focusing on strategic partnerships with the private sector and facilitating investment in frontier markets. Before her role on ERA, Kirsten was Deputy Chief of Party in Uganda on the Feed the Future Inclusive Agricultural Markets (IAM) activity from 2020 to 2023, during which she led the development of innovative partnership models that supported inclusive agricultural investment through local and international agribusinesses, financial institutions, business support, and advisory services firms.

Kirsten is a member of the finance and investment community of practice and has led research and analysis for DAI on frontier market investment strategies. Within her work on mobilizing greater private investment in agriculture in developing markets, Kirsten is keenly interested in the growth of gender-lens investing and its crosscutting application to DAI’s development work.

• M.A., international relations and economics, Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies