Susannah Horton is the Cybersecurity and Digital Policy Practice Lead at DAI’s Center for Digital Acceleration (CDA). She provides strategic vision and leadership to ensure donor clients effectively and responsibly integrate digital technologies into their work. Susannah collaborates with clients and colleagues to prioritize investments in digital technology and cybersecurity for development, conduct research on digital ecosystems, and design and implement digital technology-enabled projects. Susannah has extensive experience with donor-client engagement. Currently, she leads the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Digital Strategy implementation under the USAID-funded Digital Frontiers project. Prior to joining CDA, Susannah managed the development, pilot phase, and scale-up of Digital Ecosystem Country Assessments also under Digital Frontiers. In this role, she led and personally conducted research on topics ranging from last-mile connectivity and digital government systems to social commerce and digital literacy.

Prior to joining DAI, Susannah worked at the World Bank on a cleantech entrepreneurship program where she managed a network of climate business incubators and developed a climate innovation center assessment tool. While earning her master’s, she gained experience at the intersection of research, data, and program implementation at the Brookings Institution, Athena Infonomics, and the Millennium Challenge Corporation. With her roots in international education, Susannah got her start in international development teaching in rural China with Teach for China followed by research experience at Child Trends.

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