Kendra Leith

Kendra Leith serves as Associate Director for Research at MIT D-Lab, where she oversees the research team and implements studies on participatory design and technology evaluation. After first joining D-Lab in 2006, she organized the first International Development Design Summit and led student trips to India. Following her master's degree in City Planning from MIT's Department of Urban Studies and Planning, she returned to D-Lab in 2011 to establish evaluation strategies for the Scale-Ups Program and the Comprehensive Initiative on Technology Evaluation (CITE). Her leadership has been instrumental in securing multiple USAID grants and managing diverse research programs across institutions. In 2017, she was appointed Associate Director for Research, leading teams in areas including off-grid energy, biomass fuel, water purification, and local innovation, while co-founding the Lean Research initiative