Our Team
Leigh Fraiser, Managing Director
Leigh leads Weiss Asset Management Foundation as Managing Director. Prior to joining the foundation, she spent more than a decade at the U.S. Agency for International Development, including leading Development Innovation Ventures (DIV) and working with the Office of the Chief Economist, where she was on the team that helped found the office.
Her work focused on advancing cost-effectiveness and evidence in major funding decisions in close collaboration with agency leadership and Congress. At DIV, she led a strategic repositioning, including a full redesign of its funding approach. She has also been closely involved in advancing unconditional cash transfers as a leading tool for international development and served on the initial decision panel for DIV’s Open Philanthropy–supported scaling awards.
Amelia Knudson, Program Director
Amelia is Program Director at Weiss Asset Management Foundation, where she manages the Foundation’s Request for Proposals. Prior to joining, Amelia worked at Northwestern University’s Global Poverty Research Lab, where she advised bilateral international aid donors on improving the cost-effectiveness of their grant portfolios. Amelia also spent five years at Evidence for Policy Design, where she led capacity-building initiatives to strengthen evidence use and applied research in the public sector in low- and middle-income countries.
Amelia holds a Master of Public Administration from Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs and a bachelor’s from Harvard University.
Nina McGowan, Program Associate
Nina is Program Associate at Weiss Asset Management Foundation. Prior to joining the foundation, she worked in Investor Relations at Weiss Asset Management, where she supported operations and relationships for the firm’s investor base, including endowments and foundations. Earlier in her career, she worked at J.P. Morgan.
Nina graduated from Williams College with a Bachelor of Arts. She is currently pursuing coursework through the MITx MicroMasters Program in Data, Economics, and Design of Policy.
Arthur Baker, Senior Advisor
Arthur Baker is Senior Advisor at Weiss Asset Management Foundation. Outside of his work with the foundation, he is Senior Director for Policy and Strategy at the University of Chicago's Development Innovation Lab, where he works on strategy, policy, and research across DIL’s portfolio, including AI-based weather forecasting, drinking water, and education.
During COVID-19, Arthur was a member of the Accelerating Health Technologies team, for which he was awarded an Emergent Ventures prize. Previously, he was a Research Associate at the Center for Global Development, where he conducted research on European development policy. Before that, he was Research Coordinator for Innovations for Poverty Action Sierra Leone, where he managed randomized controlled trials, including studies on election debates and incentives for childhood immunization.
Siddharth Jain, Lead Desk Reviewer
Siddharth is Lead Desk Reviewer at Weiss Asset Management Foundation. He spent four years at Inclusion Economics India Centre, where he conducted research on financial inclusion, gender, education, and governance, and connected it to policy decisions with state government partners in India.
Siddharth holds a Master in Public Administration in International Development from the Harvard Kennedy School and teaches econometrics at Harvard College as a Teaching Fellow.
Bailey Marsheck, Desk Reviewer
Bailey is a Desk Reviewer at Weiss Asset Management Foundation; he also consults for NGOs implementing global health and development programs. Bailey has previous experience with the World Bank, J-PAL, the International Growth Centre, and the Harvard Kennedy School’s Belfer Center for Science and International Affairs. He also co-founded the Network for Effective Evidence-based Development (NEED), which helps students access high-impact careers and is supported by Coefficient Giving.
Bailey holds an MPP and Certificate in Program Evaluation from Yale University.
Eva Noble, Desk Reviewer
Eva is a Desk Reviewer at Weiss Asset Management Foundation, where she reviews incoming proposals for cost-effectiveness, evidence, and implementation capability. Eva is a social impact portfolio leader and mixed-methods researcher focused on humanitarian and global development programs. She has 15+ years of experience with global non-profits and research institutions, leading research, evaluations, and programs to improve health, poverty alleviation, gender equality, gender-based violence prevention, and child protection.
Eva received her MPH from Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health and a Bachelor of Arts from University of Pennsylvania.
Rochelle Sun, Desk Reviewer
Rochelle is a Desk Reviewer at Weiss Asset Management Foundation and a PhD Candidate in Government at Harvard University. Her dissertation research analyzes the political economy of health in low-income and conflict-affected settings. Prior to her graduate studies, she led cost-effectiveness modeling and other health economics and outcomes research projects at Analysis Group.