Margaret C. Simms, Distinguished Fellow 2024
Margaret C. Simms is a Non-Resident Fellow at the Urban Institute. Until April 2018, she was an Institute Fellow, where she directed the Low Income Working Families project. Prior to joining the Urban Institute in July 2007, she was Vice President for Governance and Economic Analysis at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. She began working at the Joint Center in 1986 as Deputy Director of Research and held positions of increasing responsibility during her 20-year tenure. From May 1 through December 31, 2006, she served as Interim President. Prior to joining the staff of the Joint Center, she was a program director at the Urban Institute.
Dr. Simms was on the faculty of Atlanta University from 1972 to 1981, teaching first in the School of Business Administration and then serving as chair of the Department of Economics in the School of Arts and Sciences. Prior to her appointment at Atlanta University, she was a faculty member at the University of California at Santa Cruz. In 1977 and 1978, Dr. Simms was a Brookings Economic Policy Fellow at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. She has also served as a consultant to a number of organizations, including the U.S. Department of State, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Dr. Simms has over 90 publications and has edited many books and monographs on Black economic well-being, including Job Creation Prospects and Strategies (with Wilhelmina A. Leigh) (Washington, D.C. Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 1998), Economic Perspectives on Affirmative Action (Washington, D.C. Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 1995); Moving Up With Baltimore: Creating Career Ladders for Blacks in the Private Sector (Washington, D.C. Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, 1991); and Slipping Through the Cracks: The Status of Black Women (New Brunswick, New Jersey: Transaction Books, 1986), co-edited with Julianne Malveaux. Additionally, she has participated as an expert in the media and before Congressional and other legislative panels.
Dr. Simms was editor of the Review of Black Political Economy from 1983 to 1988. She was instrumental in the process of sustaining the journal during a transitional period between publishers in 2019. She chaired the Board of Directors of the Institute for Women’s Policy Research from 1993 to 1998. She served as President of the National Academy of Social Insurance (NASI) from 2007 to 2009 and served on the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) Data Users Advisory Committee from 2012 to 2014.
Dr. Simms was elected a fellow in the National Association of Public Administration in 2019 and has been a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences since 2005. She has been a member of the AEA since 1970 serving on the Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, 1975–78, as a member of the Census Advisory Committee, 1986–91, and a member of the Committee on the Status of Minority Groups in the Economic Profession, 1986–94, which she chaired from 1990 to 1994. She additionally has been a member of the NEA since 1971, serving on the Board of Directors 4 times, and President for 2 years. In 2008 the National Economic Association presented her with the Samuel Z. Westerfield Award.