Alisa is a development economist and Africa expert who has followed the continent's development over the past 15 years. She specialises in modelling and forecasting key macroeconomic trends and sovereign risk analysis for a variety of countries in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Alisa transitioned in 2015 to the Global Economics SSA team from the Comparative Industry Service at IHS Markit(now part of S&P Global), where she previously took the lead in forecasting sectoral trends including profit margins and capital expenditure in the construction, agriculture and machinery sector in SSA and the Middle East. Prior to joining S&P Global, Alisa worked in macroeconomic and renewable energy government advisory in Mozambique and Kenya.

Alisa holds an honors bachelor's degree in International Relations and Economics and received her Master of Science in Development Economics from the School of Oriental and African Studies (SOAS), University of London, UK. She was also taught leadership at Harvard University. She is experienced at speaking regulary to the media and is fluent in German and English. Alisa has a good command of Portuguese and French, and speaks basic Russian.