Meet Jamie Zimmerman, 2003 Alumna

Jamie Zimmerman graduated from Patterson in December 2003. She holds a B.A. in Foreign Languages and International Economics, and a Master's in International Political Economies and Development, both from the University of Kentucky.

Currently, Jamie Zimmerman is Deputy Director of Digital Connectivity at the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, where she is driving a new learning agenda and strategy to accelerate the closure of the gender digital divide and enhance meaningful digital connectivity to improve the lives and livelihoods of women and girls. Jamie moved into her leadership position within the Foundation’s Gender Equality Division in 2022, after 5 years on the Inclusive Financial Systems team in the Global Growth and Opportunity Division, where she held various roles including Senior Program Officer for Global Partnerships, and in 2019 and Gender Equality Lead.

Prior to joining the Foundation, Jamie spent several years as senior consultant and advisor to several global organizations, including the United Nations and its World Food Programme and the World Bank. From 2006 to 2013, she directed the Global Assets Program at New America. Earlier, she was deputy director of Globalization Studies at University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill's Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, where she authored, with Dr. Susan Aaronson, Trade Imbalance: The Struggle to Weigh Human Rights Concerns in Trade Policymaking.

In a 2021 profile in UK Alumni News and periodic student guest lectures, Zimmerman has said the Patterson School shifted her aspirations and what she thought possible for her career. Her classes provided her with practically applied learning that that helped give her an appreciation for what work would be like out in the field and what those jobs and opportunities might look like. Specifically, she found that Dr. Montgomery’s class on development economics helped her see how economics shape poverty reduction, as well as the development of economies and societies. “It shifted what I understood as a possible application of economics professionally.” Zimmerman has always been curious about how she could have more of an impact on the world in a positive way. That curiosity and her experiences at the Patterson School are what opened her mind to possibilities she didn’t even know existed.

In her current role at the Gates Foundation, she is leading am initiative to deeply examine, research, and understand the gender digital divide and the severity of the problem globally. In addition to gaining a better understanding of the problem, Zimmerman’s group will identify solutions, opportunities, and strategies to correct the problems and gaps. This will then lead to the identification of investments, grants, and other avenues to accelerate progress, like advocating and building partnerships. Zimmerman anticipates her work will create a change to correct for the problem of digital connectivity gaps for women and girls and will further impact the bigger problem of gender inequality. Zimmerman’s passion is evident as she expresses that she genuinely “feels really lucky and privileged” to be able to do work that makes meaningful impact on lives and communities. She offers three important pieces of advice for the current Patterson cohort, believe in your worth, build your network, and follow your passion.