Catlan Reardon is a post-doctoral scholar at the Development Innovation Lab at the University of Chicago. She received a PhD in Political Science from the University of California, Berkeley in 2022. Her research examines how communities manage violence, climate volatility, and governance challenges in Sub-Saharan Africa, with a focus on how non-state actors mediate these challenges within polarized contexts. She uses a mixed-methods research approach, including large-scale field experiments, surveys, and in-depth qualitative research.