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Mark A. Constas (on leave)

Mark A. Constas (on leave)

  • Professor

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Faculty Area

Faculty Expertise

  • Resilience measurement with applications to poverty and food security
  • Evaluation design, impact evaluation, and assessment tools for program monitoring
  • Evidence-based policy for development and humanitarian assistance

Contact

Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management

607.255.1430

mark.constas@cornell.edu

351B Warren Hall

Biography

Mark Constas is Professor of applied economics and policy in the Charles H. Dyson School of Applied Economics and Management at Cornell University and an International Professor of agriculture and life sciences. He is a fellow of the Tata-Cornell Institute for Agriculture and Nutrition and a fellow of the Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Constas’ writing and leadership have helped advance work on how resilience can be defined, measured and evaluated for development assistance and humanitarian aid. His program of research is focused on the conceptualization and application of measurement approaches and evaluation designs to measure the ways in which households and communities situated in stressed and shock-prone contexts can achieve and maintain well-being. He has contributed to work that explores how the concept of resilience may be theorized and operationalized as a focal point of measurement and evaluation. Professor Constas served as the chair of the Resilience Measurement Technical Working Group (RMTWG), an effort jointly coordinated by The United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization, and The World Food Program, with support from the European Union and the United States Agency for International Development. Under his leadership, the RMTWG produced a series of papers that have helped shape the ways in which resilience measurement may be applied across a range of development settings. In addition to his work on resilience, Constas has developed a methodology to improve the estimation of global food crisis trends. This work was carried out with the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization and the Joint Research Centre of the European Union. He regularly serves on expert panels on food security and resilience. He has advised several U.N. organizations and chaired multiple initiatives on resilience. His research has appeared in leading peer-reviewed journals, including Nature, World Development, Global Food Security and the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. His work has also been published by U.N. agencies for policy and development audiences.

Selected Publications

Academic Degrees

  • PhD Cornell University, 1987
  • BS Northeastern University, 1983