Tom Purekal

Program Director, Innovation and Practice and Term Assistant Teaching Professor

Areas of Expertise: South Sudan; Development Effectiveness; Humanitarian Response; Local Capacity Building; Water Security & Management

Tom Purekal leads and manages a cross section of programs within the Pulte Institute's Innovation and Practice Division. His extensive programming and project design experience encompass sectors such as peacebuilding and governance; education; disaster risk reduction; and water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH). He is also a Pulte Institute Term Assistant Teaching Professor within the Keough School of Global Affairs and Program Director for a large USAID-funded global education research initiative called Supporting Holistic and Actionable Research in Education (SHARE).

Prior to joining the Pulte Institute, Purekal spent nearly a decade abroad working for Catholic Relief Services (CRS) at posts in India, South Sudan, and Myanmar, among other countries. Prior to his time with CRS, Purekal worked as the director of operations and business development for a small agriculture manufacturer’s distributor in Florida, as the sub-director of an orphanage in Honduras, and as an advertising executive in New York City.

Purekal holds an MBA from the McDonough School of Business at Georgetown University, as well as a bachelor's in government from the University of Notre Dame.