Fellow, von der Heyden Global Fellows 2025-26
Danny Tobin is a 4th-year PhD student at Duke University’s Nicholas School of the Environment. His research focuses on Sustainable Development, Evidence-Based Policymaking, Supply Chain Sustainability, Afforestation and Reforestation, Payment for Ecosystem Services, and Artisanal and Small-Scale Gold Mining (ASGM).
His work is driven by a central question: How can improved research-implementation systems catalyze the shift to more prosperous, sustainable landscapes in the Global South? Many global supply chains—whether providing private goods like food and electronics or public goods like biodiversity and carbon—originate in rural regions of the Global South. Yet, rather than leapfrogging the environmental and social harms of past industrialization, production in these areas often replicates patterns of pollution and injustice.
Global cooperation aims to address these challenges, but how often do international interventions cost-effectively generate sustainable development outcomes? Can they be improved? Are there alternative pathways—through NGOs or private enterprises—that foster prosperity and sustainability while preserving local cultures?
To explore these questions, Danny collaborates with multidisciplinary teams across various countries, applying quantitative methods (such as discrete choice modeling, econometric impact evaluations, and simulations) to assess the effects of interventions both prospectively and retrospectively. He also employs qualitative approaches to understand why interventions succeed or fail and how improved systems can lead to better outcomes.