Emiliana Vegas (EdD) has been highly recognized for her career working to inform education policy in the so-called Global South, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has been a leading economist at the World Bank, before joining the Inter-American Bank as the division chief of education and, more recently, serving as co-director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. Vegas has served on numerous leading international education boards, including currently on the Governing Board for UNESCO International Institute for Education Planning and the Board of Directors for the Jacobs Foundation in Switzerland. In addition, she has served on numerous high-impact global councils and programs, including the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Education and Skills, the WISE Prize, the Future Global Leaders Fellowship, and Teach for All’s Global Advisory Council. Since 2019, Vegas has also served as a member of the Global Advisory Council for the Organization of Ibero-American States. She is currently a professor of practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and lives in Cambridge Massachusetts.

Having spent most of my professional life in an international organization, I wish I had the vision to write the book that Emiliana has written. In this book, she draws from decades of firsthand engagement with policymakers in developing countries and from rigorous research on those countries. There is much to learn from it, including reasons for genuine optimism about our capacity to help the world for the better.

• Foreword by Noam AngristAcknowledgements List of Tables and FiguresTimelineList of Acronyms & AbbreviationsIntroductionPart I: How You Get InChapter 1: The Basics of IDOsChapter 2: The Skills You’ll NeedChapter 3: Standing Out from the CrowdChapter 4: The Paths Worth TakingPart II: How You ThriveChapter 5: Navigating the MatrixChapter 6: All About Operations and Analytical ActivitiesChapter 7: No Good Idea Goes UnfundedChapter 8: Globally Informed, Locally DrivenChapter 9: Team Player, Team LeaderChapter 10: Moving Up the Corporate LadderPart III: How to Make a Real DifferenceChapter 11: Great Supervisors Attract Great People; Toxic Ones Push Them OutChapter 12: The Power of a People PersonChapter 13: Leading for ImpactChapter 14: The Golden HandcuffsChapter 15: Having it All: Balancing Family and CareerChapter 16: Key TakeawaysAppendixBibliographyAbout the Author

Emiliana Vegas (EdD) has been highly recognized for her career working to inform education policy in the so-called Global South, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has been a leading economist at the World Bank, before joining the Inter-American Bank as the division chief of education and, more recently, serving as co-director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. Vegas has served on numerous leading international education boards, including currently on the Governing Board for UNESCO International Institute for Education Planning and the Board of Directors for the Jacobs Foundation in Switzerland. In addition, she has served on numerous high-impact global councils and programs, including the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Education and Skills, the WISE Prize, the Future Global Leaders Fellowship, and Teach for All’s Global Advisory Council. Since 2019, Vegas has also served as a member of the Global Advisory Council for the Organization of Ibero-American States. She is currently a professor of practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and lives in Cambridge Massachusetts.

Having spent most of my professional life in an international organization, I wish I had the vision to write the book that Emiliana has written. In this book, she draws from decades of firsthand engagement with policymakers in developing countries and from rigorous research on those countries. There is much to learn from it, including reasons for genuine optimism about our capacity to help the world for the better.

• Foreword by Noam AngristAcknowledgements List of Tables and FiguresTimelineList of Acronyms & AbbreviationsIntroductionPart I: How You Get InChapter 1: The Basics of IDOsChapter 2: The Skills You’ll NeedChapter 3: Standing Out from the CrowdChapter 4: The Paths Worth TakingPart II: How You ThriveChapter 5: Navigating the MatrixChapter 6: All About Operations and Analytical ActivitiesChapter 7: No Good Idea Goes UnfundedChapter 8: Globally Informed, Locally DrivenChapter 9: Team Player, Team LeaderChapter 10: Moving Up the Corporate LadderPart III: How to Make a Real DifferenceChapter 11: Great Supervisors Attract Great People; Toxic Ones Push Them OutChapter 12: The Power of a People PersonChapter 13: Leading for ImpactChapter 14: The Golden HandcuffsChapter 15: Having it All: Balancing Family and CareerChapter 16: Key TakeawaysAppendixBibliographyAbout the Author

Emiliana Vegas (EdD) has been highly recognized for her career working to inform education policy in the so-called Global South, particularly in Latin America and the Caribbean. She has been a leading economist at the World Bank, before joining the Inter-American Bank as the division chief of education and, more recently, serving as co-director of the Center for Universal Education at the Brookings Institution. Vegas has served on numerous leading international education boards, including currently on the Governing Board for UNESCO International Institute for Education Planning and the Board of Directors for the Jacobs Foundation in Switzerland. In addition, she has served on numerous high-impact global councils and programs, including the World Economic Forum's Global Future Council on Education and Skills, the WISE Prize, the Future Global Leaders Fellowship, and Teach for All’s Global Advisory Council. Since 2019, Vegas has also served as a member of the Global Advisory Council for the Organization of Ibero-American States. She is currently a professor of practice at the Harvard Graduate School of Education and lives in Cambridge Massachusetts.

Having spent most of my professional life in an international organization, I wish I had the vision to write the book that Emiliana has written. In this book, she draws from decades of firsthand engagement with policymakers in developing countries and from rigorous research on those countries. There is much to learn from it, including reasons for genuine optimism about our capacity to help the world for the better.

• Foreword by Noam AngristAcknowledgements List of Tables and FiguresTimelineList of Acronyms & AbbreviationsIntroductionPart I: How You Get InChapter 1: The Basics of IDOsChapter 2: The Skills You’ll NeedChapter 3: Standing Out from the CrowdChapter 4: The Paths Worth TakingPart II: How You ThriveChapter 5: Navigating the MatrixChapter 6: All About Operations and Analytical ActivitiesChapter 7: No Good Idea Goes UnfundedChapter 8: Globally Informed, Locally DrivenChapter 9: Team Player, Team LeaderChapter 10: Moving Up the Corporate LadderPart III: How to Make a Real DifferenceChapter 11: Great Supervisors Attract Great People; Toxic Ones Push Them OutChapter 12: The Power of a People PersonChapter 13: Leading for ImpactChapter 14: The Golden HandcuffsChapter 15: Having it All: Balancing Family and CareerChapter 16: Key TakeawaysAppendixBibliographyAbout the Author