Partnerships & Communications

John Custer

Deputy Director of Analytics and Communications

jcuster@aiddata.org

Summary

John Custer is AidData’s Deputy Director of Analytics and Communications. He leads a talented, multidisciplinary team working across data, technology, editorial, and design to turn complex research into clear, credible, and useful products. His work sits at the intersection of evidence, digital delivery, and communication, helping project teams make rigorous analysis more accessible to policymakers, practitioners, partners, funders, and other decision-makers.

Education

M.S.B.A, College of William & Mary

B.S., International Business, Grove City College

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Background

John’s work spans digital product strategy, interactive dashboards, data visualization, research communication, publication design, data wrangling, and front-end development. He specializes in connecting the analytical, technical, and communications dimensions of a project—from shaping how evidence is organized and presented to delivering the digital platforms through which it reaches its intended audience.

His portfolio of publicly accessible digital products includes AidData’s institutional website, the China Global Development Dashboard, the China Seaports Dashboard, and AidData’s searchable archive of USAID Development Experience Clearinghouse evaluations. He has also produced internal analytical dashboards for the U.S. Department of State and the Gates Foundation, translating complex data into tools tailored to the needs of institutional partners and decision-makers.

John has co-authored policy research on development finance and the Sustainable Development Goals, collaborated with the National Bureau of Asian Research to map China's strategic space, and teaches the data visualization module in AidData's Navigating Global Development Finance course. Across this work, he focuses on connecting analytical rigor with effective digital delivery—so that high-quality research is not merely published, but understood, explored, and used.

John brings more than two decades of international, nonprofit, entrepreneurial, analytics, and communications experience. Before joining AidData, he co-founded an online coffee company and served as government relations director for an NGO supporting multilingual education programs in Southeast Asia. He holds an M.S. in Business Analytics from William & Mary and a B.S. in International Business from Grove City College.

July 31, 2026

Before reimagining development data, remember what we’ve learned

Why we’re publishing a free, searchable, and ungated archive featuring a quarter-century of USAID evaluation reports.

September 30, 2022

As budgets shrink, study finds little evidence aid is directed to the worst-off

Conventional wisdom is that scarcity shifts aid resources to needier places, but a new study finds this isn’t the case.

August 22, 2022

Beyond saving lives, landmine removal in Afghanistan clears path to development, study finds

AidData’s geospatial impact evaluation of a demining program in Afghanistan sheds light on the results of a decades-long effort to tackle the complicated and compelling problem of landmine removal.

April 28, 2021

Development that doesn’t deforest: Study points to path forward for local infrastructure projects

A groundbreaking study of 40,000 local infrastructure projects in Cambodia finds the program by-and-large created economic gains while not hastening forest loss.

April 23, 2021

Is it possible for infrastructure not to hurt forests?

A recently published study in JAERE finds that certain types of local infrastructure projects can improve rural livelihoods AND forest conditions, but important caveats apply.

March 1, 2021

Aid distributions to the most vulnerable remained equitable even after Nigeria crossed a key income threshold, study finds

The country avoided one potential unintended consequence of a policy question that will affect nearly two dozen countries over the next decade.

November 13, 2020

A “new” type of data for development

AidData’s next-generation measures of important development outcomes use machine learning to help policy makers overcome data gaps.

July 27, 2020

Plan B for development impact evaluations? Going remote.

New methods to predict missing geospatial data could reduce barriers to evaluating development programs in hard-to-reach areas.

July 26, 2020

Un Plan B pour évaluer l’impact du développement? Aller dans les zones reculées.

De nouvelles méthodes de prédiction des données géospatiales manquantes pourraient permettre de réduire les obstacles à l’évaluation des programmes de développement dans les zones difficiles d’accès.

June 17, 2020

U.S. contributions to Kenya estimated at over $3 billion annually, according to new AidData research

The report is the first to provide a whole-of-society view of U.S. contributions to Kenya’s economy and development.

February 7, 2020

Five lessons on counting the costs of sustainable cities

We share lessons learned from our work with UN-Habitat to understand the financing needed to achieve SDG 11 at the city level.

June 24, 2019

How Cambodia’s program to strengthen local governance built roads and saved lives

A new report on the long-term impacts of locally-led development projects provides insights for those who work in post-conflict settings.

April 3, 2019

GeoQuery reaches 10,000 dataset requests

GeoQuery, AidData’s flagship platform for creating customized geospatial datasets, today fulfilled its 10,000th data request.

February 22, 2019

Back to basics: A stronger case for bednets to fight malaria

A new study in PLOS ONE by a team including AidData, William & Mary researchers finds that a bednet campaign in the DRC led to a 41% decline in child mortality rates.

February 15, 2019

Evaluating irrigation projects when survey data sources run dry

A USAID water management program in Afghanistan greened fields in ways that can be seen from space.

January 31, 2019

In fragile states, increasing citizen trust in democracy

AidData is surveying thousands of households in Niger to evaluate a USAID project that aims to strengthen government accountability.

January 17, 2019

GeoSIMEX: A better method for handling geospatial imprecision

Analysts need to find ways to live with the reality of noisy and imprecise geospatial data. GeoSIMEX may be able to help.

March 13, 2018

AidData/William & Mary awarded two-year grant to study data on refugee, migrant and trafficked children

The two-year, nearly $500,000 grant funds research to improve the data needed for assistance programs seeking to help children on the move.

February 15, 2018

Filling the missing middle: A method for impact evaluators on a budget

Faster and cheaper than a randomized control trial but more rigorous than a performance evaluation, Geospatial Impact Evaluations (GIEs) fill the “missing middle” for organizational learning.

January 23, 2018

Six deep dives into China’s checkbook diplomacy

AidData’s release of the most comprehensive dataset yet on Beijing’s spending abroad prompted a flurry of media coverage and policy analysis. See our top five picks for articles and interviews that provide new insight.

March 22, 2017

Avoiding Data Graveyards: How can we overcome barriers to data use?

Development practitioners track mortality rates for scourges like HIV/AIDS, and malaria. But nobody tracks the mortality rate of data.

February 16, 2017

What are development corridor strategies, and do they work?

Liberia made foreign direct investment (FDI) the centerpiece of its development strategy. We examine how these natural resource concessions affected local economic growth.

February 7, 2017

Want to reform aid? Double down on impact evaluations

More investment in evaluation would determine which types of projects deliver the best results, and reassure American taxpayers that foreign aid can provide good value-for-money.

January 11, 2017

Using machine learning to combat environmental degradation on a global scale

Leveraging machine learning algorithms to sift through terabytes of high-resolution satellite data, a new report by AidData and the Global Environment Facility has identified the factors that contribute to land degradation on a global scale.

October 10, 2016

Groundbreaking study on how developing world leaders view German aid

The study is the first to analyze Germany’s official development assistance activities based on the experiences, observations, and opinions of decision makers in the countries that German aid agencies seek to help.

August 18, 2016

Viewing poverty more clearly — from space

Ground-breaking research by Stanford University scientists has combined satellite imagery taken from space and machine learning to bring better measurements of poverty and economic development within reach.

July 20, 2016

PEPFAR Innovation Challenge to reduce HIV/AIDS in Africa awards AidData two-year project

AidData will produce new tools and analysis to support policymakers making crucial healthcare decisions in the fight against HIV/AIDS.

Policy Brief

Securing Prosperity, Building Resilience: U.S. Economic Partnership in the Indo-Pacific

Bryan Burgess, Divya Mathew, Samantha Custer, John Custer

2024-02-08

Policy Report

Financing Agenda 2030: Are donors missing the mark on the Sustainable Development Goals?

Bryan Burgess, John Custer, Samantha Custer

2023-09-20

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