Dr. Lecy is an assistant professor at the Andrew Young School of Policy Studies of Georgia State and a research fellow with the Transnational NGO Initiative at Syracuse University. His research focuses on understanding how nonprofits compete for resources and the effects of competition on organizational survival and performance. He has also worked on empirical issues of poverty measurement and statistical modeling of community well-being.

Prior to graduate school Jesse worked in the field of humanitarian relief in Kosovo and with a social service nonprofit in the Twin Cities.  He earned masters degrees in Public Policy and Management from Carnegie Mellon and Applied Statistics from Syracuse University.