Katya Vasilaky

Katya Vasilaky is an Associate Professor of Economics at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) and a Faculty Affiliate at the Noyce School of Applied Computing (Cal Poly). She holds additional affiliations as a Research Affiliate at the Climate School (Columbia University), Faculty Affiliate at CEGA (UC Berkeley), and Invited Researcher at J-PAL (MIT). Her work bridges development economics, experimental economics, and data science, focusing on gender, technology adoption, and social networks in agriculture across Sub-Saharan Africa, India, Central America, the US, and Ukraine.

• Research Themes: Female technology adoption, algorithmic bias in recommendation systems, climate adaptation, and experimental design.
• Field Work: Conducted in Uganda, Tanzania, India, Ethiopia, Honduras, Philippines, and Ukraine.
• Grants: Funded by USDA, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, World Bank, and Columbia University.
• Personal Engagements: Co-founder of Ground Truth Data, co-runs PyData SLO, and combines improv theater with economic communication via Economists for Ukraine.

Her methodological contributions include bias correction in econometrics and machine learning, while applied work spans from farmer training to disaster response evaluation. She has presented at global seminars and conferences in France, Japan, Colombia, and Norway.