Martha Chen

Who is Martha Chen?

Martha Alter Chen is an American academic, scholar and social worker, who presently a Lecturer in Public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and International Coordinator of the global research-policy-action network WIEGO. Dr. Chen is a development practitioner and scholar who has worked with the working poor in India, South Asia, and around the world. Her areas of specialization are employment, poverty alleviation, informal economy, and gender. She lived in Bangladesh working with BRAC, one of the world's largest non-governmental organizations, and in India, as field representative of Oxfam America for India and Bangladesh for 15 years.

In 2011, she received the Padma Shri from the Government of India for her contributions in the field of Social work.