Jef Leroy joined IFPRI in July 2009 as a Research Fellow in the Poverty, Health, and Nutrition Division. Before joining IFPRI, he was a research associate at the Center for Evaluation Research and Surveys at the National Institute of Public Health in Mexico. He worked on the impact evaluation of large scale programs, including the impact of the urban and rural Oportunidades programs on child nutrition and health, and the impact of the Programa de Apoyo Alimentario (an in-kind transfer program) on household food consumption and women's weight. He has also conducted research on child mortality.

Jef has a PhD in International Nutrition (Cornell University, USA) and a MSc in Agricultural and Applied Biological Sciences (Ghent University, Belgium).