Professor Cally Ardington is the Director of DataFirst, an open research data service at the University of Cape Town (UCT) dedicated to expanding access to and use of African microdata. She is also a Professor in the Southern African Labour and Development Research Unit (SALDRU) and Co-Scientific Director of J-PAL Africa. She holds a PhD in Economics from UCT and has built her career at the intersection of research, policy engagement, and data innovation.

Her research covers development and labour economics, with a particular focus on education and health. She has extensive experience in survey design, data curation, and the quantitative evaluation of education interventions, especially in early literacy and numeracy. As Principal Investigator of the African Foundational Learning Data Hub, she leads efforts to strengthen an African-led research agenda on foundational learning through improved data access and capacity-building. In addition to the hub’s workshops, she has taught widely on survey design, data analysis, and evaluation methods for graduate students, academics, practitioners, and policymakers.