Georgetown Americas Institute

Featuring

Martín E. De Simone is an education specialist at the World Bank, focusing on Eastern and Southern Africa. His work spans a range of projects related to basic education, skills development, youth at risk, and finance and governance of education. Previously, he worked in Western and Central Africa, where he was based in Nigeria and served as the task team leader for multiple analytical and operational initiatives, including the Edo Basic Education Sector and Skills Transformation (EdoBESST) program. Martín played a key role in developing the Africa Human Capital Plan and co-led the formulation of the Western and Central Africa Education Strategy. He began his career at the World Bank in the Office of the Vice President for the Africa region, working on human development and technology. His current interests lie in multisectoral approaches to human development and leveraging technology and innovation to enhance education outcomes and service delivery. Before joining the World Bank, Martín worked with various governments, think tanks, and civil society organizations on human development, institutional reform, and the nexus between violence and human development. An Argentinian national, he was director of education and security for Argentina's federal government, where he spearheaded several programs in collaboration with national universities. Martín holds a master’s degree in public affairs with a concentration in international development from Princeton University.

Hilary Foster (MBA’15) has served as an Amazon Web Services (AWS) business development manager focused on public sector customers since 2025. She has held various previous positions with AWS, including education programs lead for public sector sales in Latin America, Canada, and the Caribbean and program manager for the same regions. Before that, she was a senior associate of banking operations and technology for PwC, and she spent seven years as an operations officer at the Inter American Development Bank. Foster holds a B.A. in international relations from the College of Wooster, an M.S. in Latin American studies from Ohio University, and an MBA from Georgetown University. 

Marcelo Cabrol is the division chief of Inter American Development Bank (IDB) Lab’s scalability, knowledge, and impact (SKI) division. He has been at the IDB for over 20 years, having previously managed the social sector department, the office of external relations, and the education division of the IDB. Cabrol has a bachelor’s degree in economics and political science from the Universidad del Salvador in Buenos Aires, a master’s degree in public policy from Georgetown University, and a doctoral degree (ABD) in government and public policy from the same institution.

Jordan Jasuta Fischer is a lead artificial intelligence (AI) developer and solutions architect in IBM’s public service division, designing and implementing integrated AI and machine learning systems for the U.S. government. She specializes in advanced AI (LLMs and other foundation models), AI governance, responsible AI, and adversarial AI robustness. Her background in AI and data systems in the public sector has spanned topics as diverse as urban development, climate resiliency, public administration, public health, and human rights. She holds a bachelor’s degree in economics from the University of Utah and a master’s degree in business analytics from George Washington University.