David Jacobstein has been with USAID for 11 years. He serves as a Democracy Specialist in the Policy Coordination and Integration Division of the Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance Center, where he focuses on issues of capacity strengthening, systems thinking, political economy, and cross-sectoral integration. He leads work that has promulgated measurement and programming recommendations through the Local Capacity Strengthening Policy, and served as a co-author of the Local Systems Framework. He also supports training related to systems thinking and applied political economy analysis, and contributes to the design of programming focusing on civil society strengthening and advocacy, network strengthening, community engagement, and integrated governance. Previously, he worked for Pact and the American Bar Association supporting civil society strengthening and rule of law programming across Africa, Europe, and Asia. He holds an M.A. in International Relations and Economics from Johns Hopkins SAIS, where he also serves as adjunct faculty, and a B.A. in History from Brown University.