Martha (Marty) Chen is a Lecturer in Urban Planning and Design at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. An experienced development practitioner and scholar, her areas of specialization are employment, gender and poverty with a focus on the working poor in the informal economy.  Dr. Chen co-founded and, for twenty years, led the global network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (www.wiego.org) which is well known worldwide for its work to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy through stronger organizations, improved statistics and research and a more favorable policy environment. She now serves on the WIEGO board and chairs the boards of BRAC Global and the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU WIDER). Before joining Harvard University in 1987, she had two decades of resident development experience working in Bangladesh (with the NGO BRAC) and in India (as field representative of Oxfam America).   Dr. Chen received a PhD in South Asia Regional Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.  She was awarded a high civilian award, the Padma Shri, by the Government of India in April 2011; and a Friends of Bangladesh Liberation War award by the Government of Bangladesh in December 2012.