Sonila Hasaj holds a MA in Economics with a concentration in Development from Vanderbilt University, United States, and is closely related with the impact of small local enterprises and human capital investment on sustainable development. Since 2016, Sonila has been engaged as a project manager and researcher in the non-profit sector with national and international organizations like GO2, Soles4Souls, and BRAC Uganda. Her experience and interests includes data-driven policy making in the field of education, environment, inequality and migration studies.

In 2021, Sonila was awarded Academic Excellence Award by Vanderbilt University. She is also a winner of the second prize of the 6th international competition held in 2018 by Leibniz Information Center for Economics (Kiel, Germany) demonstrating a real proficiency in research skills.