Kim Wilson

Kim Wilson is a senior lecturer at The Fletcher School at Tufts University, where she teaches courses on financial innovation, informal finance, economic development in low-income markets, and field research methods. Across her courses, she examines the challenges faced by low-income stationary and migrating populations as they manage their enterprises and financial activities.

Wilson began researching the financial experiences of migrating populations in 2016. Since then, with the help of doctoral and master's students, she has collected more than 650 "Financial Biographies," profiles of the economic experiences of migrating and newly settled people. These profiles are featured on The Journeys Project, a partnership between Fletcher and St. Mary's School of Law. Her co-authored books, "Backyard Bankers: Immigrants, Savings Clubs, and Pursuit of the American Dream" (Practical Action Press, 2025), and the forthcoming "Finance on the Fly: The Hidden Economics of Migration" (Princeton University Press), draw on the material housed there.

Wilson has worked for or consulted with international NGOs including Catholic Relief Services, CARE, and Mercy Corps, as well as United Nations agencies (UNDP, UNCDF) and the World Bank (CGAP). She has led major research projects on migration funded by the German government and the Open Society Foundations.

She is a senior research Fellow at Fletcher's Henry J. Leir Institute for Migration and Human Security and at its Institute for Business in a Global Context. In 2010, with a grant from the Gates Foundation, she founded the Fletcher Leadership Program for Financial Inclusion (FLPFI), which each year brings together 25-30 central bankers and financial policymakers from around the world to focus on financial inclusion and innovation. She also serves on the board of advisors of the Center for Financial Inclusion.