Jillian J. Foster studies recruitment and mobilization into armed groups and the performative nature of political violence at Yale University. Prior to joining Yale's Department of Political Science, Foster completed master's degrees in gender studies from University College London and data science from New York University.
As a Gender, Peace & Security expert, Foster has spent over a decade designing and leading fifteen quasi-experimental and mixed-methods studies, along with fieldwork in 12 countries. She is the founder of Global Insight, a consultancy specializing in the use of gender-sensitive, mixed-methods empirical research in fragile contexts.
Foster is the Principal Investigator for the Women in Conflict Project, a research initiative with data collection in Somalia/Somaliland (2019), Afghanistan (2017), Syrian, Kurdish, and Palestinian women in Lebanon (2015), and Tajikistan borderlands (2011). The project recently launched a podcast of the same name. She also leads the Independent Commission for Aid Impact (ICAI) joint review of conflict-related sexual violence and sexual exploitation and abuse.
Foster's research has been supported by UN Women, CARE, the One Earth Future Fund, University College London, UNHCR and UNDP, in addition to the Yale University MacMillan Center Program on Refugees, Forced Displacement, and Humanitarian Responses Fellowship.
Her work has informed programming and policy at UN DPO and DPPA, CARE, Plan International, World Vision, UNHCR, UN Women, the UN Trust Fund, the International Rescue Committee, and countless other INGOs. She has presented her research to academics and practitioners in Atlanta, Geneva, Ghana, Lebanon, New York, Tajikistan, Thailand, and Washington, DC.
At Ecoheart, Jillian advises on data strategy and research initiatives, bringing her expertise in gender-sensitive, mixed-methods empirical research to inform community-driven approaches.