Jennifer Brass is a professor at the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University (PhD, University of California, Berkeley). Her research focuses on service provision, privatization and governance in sub-Saharan Africa, particularly non-state service provision and the development of renewable electricity services. Jennifer teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on NGO management, international development, international policy, and state building. She is the author of many scholarly articles, chapters, and a book, Allies or Adversaries: NGOs and the State in Africa (Cambridge University Press).

Jennifer has been collaborating with Betty Nyagoha and the team at Gatoto Integrated Development Programme (GIDP) for more than 15 years. She began the relationship with GIDP in 2002, when she spent nearly a year in Nairobi, Kenya, working with the GIDP management team on-site to establish Gatoto as a formal, independent organization. She has returned to Gatoto a half-dozen times. Jennifer has also taught or conducted research in Djibouti, Uganda, Senegal, and the United Kingdom, as well as for the U.S. State Department and Department of Defense.