Dr. Mary Thamari
IGNITE Gender Expert
Dr. Mary Thamari, IGNITE gender expert, brings more than 15 years of experience in technical advisory, program management, and leadership in the development sector. She has been involved in research, program quality assurance, and impact assessment in a range of development and humanitarian programs, including environmental sustainability, economic empowerment, agriculture and livelihoods, disaster response and resilience, and conflict and peacebuilding
Thamari is driven by a passion to end poverty and inequality and utilizes her skills in ethnographic research, gender analysis, political economy analysis, strategic planning, and project management to that end.
Thamari holds a Ph.D. in African Studies and Anthropology from the University of Birmingham, UK, with extensive research in gender norms and livelihoods. Her contributions to research and academia have led to authorship of books and journal articles with a focus on women, gender norms, land laws, women’s land rights, livelihoods, youth aspirations and resilience, and the intersections between social norms and development.