Billy Jack is a Professor of Economics at Georgetown University, and co-founder and co-director of gui2de, the Georgetown University Initiative on Innovation, Development and Evaluation, which conducts empirical field-based research to assess the impact and effectiveness of development interventions. Previously he held positions on the Joint Committee on Taxation of the US Congress, the IMF, the Australian National University, and the University of Sydney. He holds a BSc in Mathematics and Physics from the University of Western Australia, and an MPhil and DPhil in Economics from Oxford University, where he was a Rhodes Scholar.
On December 31, 2023, Billy completed his second and final three-year term as Vice Provost of Research. During his six years as VPR he oversaw the professionalization and consolidation of research services across the Main Campus (the College of Arts and Sciences, the McCourt School of Public Policy, the School of Foreign Service, the Business Schools, the Graduate School, and the School of Continuing Studies) and the GU Medical Center, including the creation of the Joint Office of Research Administration, the Office of Human Subjects Protection, and the Office of Research Oversight. He chaired the Main Campus and Medical Center Research Continuity Working Group throughout the COVID pandemic, and modernized Main Campus faculty leave policies, processes and databases.
Billy’s online EdX course, created with colleagues from Georgetown's Center for New Designs in Learning and Scholarship (CNDLS) and the World Bank on Impact Evaluation Methods for Low- and Middle-Income Countries, was selected as one of the top ten EdX courses of 2022.