Prof. Libby McDonald

Libby McDonald is Associate Director for Practice at MIT D-Lab where she developed and launched the Inclusive Economies program to effectively incorporate marginalized populations into formal regional and global economic systems. She is also a lecturer at D-Lab, teaching the D-Lab: Gender and Development with Sally Haslanger.

Through research and practice in Latin America, West Africa, and India, Libby has developed digital financial services and strategic participatory approaches to support low-resource communities in becoming essential stakeholders in global economic systems. Libby brings together multinationals, government representatives, and informal sector workers to collaboratively re-design market systems and build networks of integrated, environmentally sustainable, and socially inclusive businesses. These businesses incorporate informal sector-workers, including smallholder farmers, waste pickers, and gold miners, into sustainable economic systems.  

Prior to her work at D-Lab, Libby was the MIT Community Innovator Lab’s Program Director of Global Sustainability Partnerships where she worked with NGOs and institutional actors such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the United Nations Development Program to research and develop value chain solutions that promote environmental sustainability in Nicaragua, Panama, Brazil, and Mexico.