Talk outline:
Dr. Sarah Ashcroft-Jones will present her research on financial and health decision-making, focusing on designing effective, evidence-based interventions and translating research into policy. Drawing from her experience working with community stakeholders and international organisations, she will share key insights on developing meaningful experiments that drive real-world impact.
The talk will explore intervention projects ranging from strategies to increase vaccination uptake to initiatives that promote healthier financial behaviors. Dr. Ashcroft-Jones will examine the entire research pipeline, from hypothesis generation to data dissemination, offering a deep dive into what it takes to conduct impactful global research and how academia can inform policy change.
Speaker Bio:
Dr. Sarah Ashcroft-Jones
Postdoctoral Researcher | Behavioral Scientist | Executive Director
Dr. Sarah Ashcroft-Jones is the Executive Director of the Junior Researcher Programme and a postdoctoral research scientist at Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health. She earned an MA in Psychological and Behavioural Sciences from the University of Cambridge and an MSc in Psychological Methods from the University of Oxford, where she also completed her PhD in Experimental Psychology funded by the UK Medical Research Council. Her doctoral research explored computational models of metacognitive decision confidence in categorization judgments.
Currently, Dr. Ashcroft-Jones investigates the individual and structural factors influencing financial and health decisions, focusing on theory-driven interventions aimed at reducing social inequality. Her international work includes collaborations with academic institutions like Heidelberg University and policy consultancy with the World Bank’s Mind, Behavior, and Development Unit. Her research spans multiple countries and disciplines, resulting in high-impact publications in leading journals such as Nature, Nature Human Behavior, and Behavioral and Brain Sciences. A committed advocate for open science, she served as a Fellow of Reproducible Research at the University of Oxford.
Dr. Ashcroft-Jones’ expertise bridges psychology, behavioral economics, and public policy, with a dedication to translating rigorous, data-driven research into actionable insights that enhance societal well-being on a global scale.