David Roodman is a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development focusing on microfinance, debt relief, and climate change. His widely praised book, Due Diligence, confronts bottom-line questions about the impacts of microfinance, and how it should be supported. He wrote the book through a pathbreaking Microfinance Open Book Blog, where he shared questions, discoveries, and draft chapters.

Roodman has been architect and manager of the Commitment to Development Index since the project's inception in 2002. The Index ranks the world's richest countries based on their dedication to policies that benefit the 5 billion people living in poorer nations; it is widely recognized as the most comprehensive measure of rich-country policies towards the developing world.

Roodman previously worked at the Worldwatch Institute, where he wrote three monographs on environmental issues, and one on debt - Still Waiting for the Jubilee: Pragmatic Solutions for the Third World Debt Crisis. He authored the book The Natural Wealth of Nations: Harnessing the Market for the Environment, which Foreign Affairs called "required reading for legislators around the world.” The Japanese edition garnered him a selection as one of "The Outstanding Young Persons" of 2003 by the Osaka Junior Chamber, which led to an audience with the Emperor and Empress.

Roodman spent academic year 1998–99 on a Fulbright in Vietnam. He has never taken a course in economics or statistics.