Rashmi Shankar is currently a Program Leader for the South Caucasus, based in Tbilisi, Georgia. Prior to this position, Rashmi was Senior Economist for Azerbaijan and Georgia and, before that, worked in Latin America and the Caribbean as a Senior Economist and Team Leader on several countries including Costa Rica, Ecuador, Guatemala, Jamaica and Nicaragua. Rashmi has a strong background in leading a wide range of operational and AAA tasks at the World Bank. She holds a PhD in Economics from the University of California at Santa Cruz and was a tenure-track Assistant Professor at Brandeis University before joining the Bank. She has published widely in the fields of international economics, including trade and growth, and macroeconomics.