Alyssa René Heinze is a Postdoctoral Fellow at Stanford’s King Center on Global Development. In Fall 2027, she will join the University of California, Davis as an Assistant Professor of Political Science. She received her PhD from the University of California, Berkeley.

She conducts research on the political economy of development, gender and politics, and environmental and climate politics, with a focus on India. Her work has appeared in the American Political Science Review, The Journal of Politics, World Development, and Legislative Studies Quarterly.

Her research is supported by the National Science Foundation, the Fulbright Association, CEGA, the Global Democracy Commons, and the Weiss Fund, among others. Her approach to research is motivated by an explicit goal of policy impact, informed by her background in international public policy (at the State Department, the World Bank, USAID and IDInsight).