Margaret C. Simms is a Senior Fellow at the Urban Institute in Washington, D.C., where she directs the Low Income Working Families project. Prior to joining the Urban Institute in July 2007, she was a Vice President at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies.

She has edited many books and monographs on black economic well-being, and has written extensively on issues of employment and training, education, income and poverty, and minority business development. Dr. Simms is an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. She received her PhD in Economics from Stanford University.