James B. (Ben) Tidwell has 11 years of experience in behavioral science and public health with a focus on sanitation and hygiene. He is the WASH Research Lead for World Vision and his work focuses on the application of econometric methods and behavioral science to understand consumer demand and institutional behavior to facilitate scale up of sustainable WASH service delivery through private sector and government-led approaches.

He has led numerous research projects including creating demand for urban on-site sanitation in Zambia, assessing costs and willingness to pay for sewer connections in slums in Bangladesh, and understanding the impact of different intervention delivery modalities on individual and collective behaviors in Ghana. He has worked with the private sector ranging from multinational corporations to start ups in sanitation and hygiene.

He also leads the Research Equity Initiative and associated research projects to promote LMIC researcher capacity-building and transition to leading independent research projects.