Ellen Hamilton is a Lead Urban Specialist for the Urban, Resilience and Land Global Practice – Europe and Central Asia Region at the World Bank. Ellen is a global expert and thought leader with twenty five years experience leading analytical work and projects focusing on sustainable urban development, covering topics such as: affordable land/ housing supply and demand; urban growth; urban planning: urban services; municipal management; municipal finance; urban upgrading and regeneration; and conflict and violence prevention. She particularly enjoys working across sectoral boundaries. She has experience in post-conflict and fragile states as well as upper middle income countries in the Middle East and North Africa, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Europe and Central Asia. She holds a Ph.D. in Geography from Columbia University and wrote her dissertation about housing and residential differentiation in Moscow.