Shelly Culbertson

Biography

Shelly Culbertson is a senior research manager at the RAND-Qatar Policy Institute (RQPI) in Doha, Qatar. Her research focuses on building institutional infrastructure, science and technology policy, and education. Culbertson coordinated RAND's project to design and establish the Qatar National Research Fund, a research funding organization that has supported approximately $400 million (U.S. dollars) in research grants to Qatar's universities in partnership with international research institutions. She has also co-led projects examining an educational voucher program, where families in Qatar can use public funding to send their children to either government or private schools. Culbertson has served on a select team of RAND researchers to advise the Kurdistan Regional Government of Iraq on a strategy and action plan to improve quality and access to K–12 education. Other RAND projects have included developing a research and education strategy for the Qatar Foundation, developing a waste management strategy for a real estate developer in the United Arab Emirates, and advising on Qatar's food security efforts.

Prior to RAND, Culbertson worked as a public policy fellow at LMI Government Consulting (with research focused on international trade and developing countries) and at the U.S. Department of State as a foreign affairs officer (dealing with Turkey, the Middle East, and Central Asia). Culbertson earned her M.P.A. in international relations and development studies from the Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, Princeton University.