Idalia Rodriguez Morales is a Researcher at IRC’s Airbel Impact Lab. With a strong background in advanced research methods  (including randomized controlled trials and quasi-experimental studies incorporating qualitative methods), program design, monitoring and evaluation, measurement, and education policy, she serves as research lead, statistician, methodologist, and advisor to education programs. Idalia currently manages and participates in all aspects of education research, from design to final report writing, including tool development and validation, data collection training and supervision, conducting data analysis, literature reviews, and evidence gaps, as well as leading learning and dissemination efforts. She is the research lead for PlayMatters, a play-based teacher professional developing program to improve host and refugee children's well-being, and cognitive, social, and emotional skills in Tanzania, Ethiopia, and Uganda; and AudioClass, an AI-driven edtech experience.

Prior to this role, as a Technical Manager with MSI, she served as activity lead for USAID’s Data and Evidence for Education Programs (DEEP) to improve the quality, relevance, accessibility, and use of data, research, and evaluation outcomes, working in cross-country synthesis of evidence, developing guidance on evidence-based metrics, indicators, and targets, assessing data quality, developing data and reporting protocols, and conducting ad-hoc quantitative analyses using large and complex datasets. She has experience managing technical programs and research collaborations with international and national governments, donors, and local and international NGOs, having worked in partnership with multiple USAID Country Mission Offices, the World Bank, UNICEF, the Global Partnership for Education (GPE), UNESCO, DFID (now FCDO), LEGO foundation, private donors and organizations, RTI, MSI, EDC, as well as Federal and Local Ministries of Public Education. She incorporates ecological, intersectional, and culturally responsive-sustaining frameworks into her research, ensuring a holistic and inclusive approach, having worked with cross-functional teams in Africa (DRC, Ethiopia, Ghana, Malawi, Rwanda, Senegal, South Sudan, Tanzania, and Uganda), Asia (Pakistan and Thailand), Latin America (Brazil, Bolivia, Colombia, and Mexico) and the MENA region (Jordan and Lebanon). She is an active member of the INEE Data Working Group, the Scaling Community of Practice, and other cross-organization Special Interest Groups on data, evidence, and community-led development.

Idalia holds an M.A. in International Education Policy Analysis from Stanford University, a B.S. in Economics from Universidad Panamericana, and Philosophy studies from the National Autonomous University of Mexico and Cornell University (with a focus on ethics and AI).