Judy Baker

Judy Baker is currently a Senior Advisor with Cities Alliance, Adjunct Professor at Georgetown University, Advisory Council Member on Latin America at the Lincoln Institute of Land Policy, and International Consultant working on urban development issues. Until 2023 she was a Global Lead and Lead Economist at the World Bank in the Global Practice for Urban, Resilience and Land. Throughout her 30-year career at the World Bank she was responsible for leading policy dialogue, project management, and analytical work, particularly in East Asia, Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. This work has spanned engagements in over 30 countries and covered topics related to sustainable urbanization and its impacts, affordable housing, service delivery, climate change, local governance, economic development, urban poverty, and monitoring and evaluation. She has led several communities of practice with outreach to global partners from many organizations. She has published six books, as well as produced numerous country and regional reports for the World Bank. She has also been an invited speaker at many international events and guest lecturer at numerous universities. As a mentor, Judy brings extensive experience in recruiting and leading teams, deep analytics and policy guidance on a wide range of urban development issues in many different types of cities, project design, problem solving, partnership building, and career guidance.