Nathan Chesterman

Nathan Chesterman began his international research career studying chimpanzees in a Ugandan national park, where he developed a keen interest in understanding how social and ecological systems interact to shape outcomes for people and ecosystems. Chesterman applies this lens to his work as a research analyst in Mathematica Global Unit, working primarily on projects related to natural resource management and agricultural livelihoods.

Since joining Mathematica in 2021, Chesterman has supported multiple international evaluations and analytical projects with federal and foundation clients. On the Millennium Challenge Corporation’s Lusaka Water Supply, Sanitation, and Drainage project, he led data collection, analysis, and writing for a study on the impacts of new drainage infrastructure on household flooding. For the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation’s Advancing Local Dairy Development in Nigeria project, Chesterman supported indicator development, data collection oversight, and analysis. On the Mastercard Foundation’s Youth & Agri-Food Systems Foresight Analytics project, he served as a programmer, processing large secondary datasets from over 10 sources, and building multidimensional data visualizations of how economic and demographic development and a changing climate may impact food systems in the future.

Before joining Mathematica, Chesterman conducted research on the impacts of land consolidation for industrial agriculture on agricultural livelihoods and landscapes in East Africa. He also worked on the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) Measuring Impact II project, where he supported USAID’s global portfolio of biodiversity conservation programming in the areas of cross-project learning, adaptive management, and evidence-based decision making. He holds an M.S. in natural resources and environment from the University of Michigan.