Margaret C. Simms is an institute fellow at the Urban Institute and director of its low-income working families project, a research initiative exploring the challenges faced by 9 million families and their 19 million children. Previously, she held many positions at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, including vice president for governance and economic analysis and interim president. She has also served as a faculty member at Atlanta University, at Clark College (Atlanta) and at the University of California at Santa Cruz. She has been editor of the Review of Black Political Economy and chair of the board of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research. She has been a member of Black Enterprise magazine’s board of economists and president of the National Academy of Social Insurance. She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She has a M.A. degree and a Ph.D. in economics from Stanford University.