Dr Martha (Marty) Chen is a lecturer in urban planning and design at the Harvard Graduate school of Design and co-founder, international coordinator emeritus and board member of the global network Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO). An experienced development practitioner and scholar, her areas of specialisation are employment, gender and poverty with a focus on the working poor in the informal economy. Before joining Harvard in 1987, Dr. Chen had two decades of resident work experience in Bangladesh with BRAC, and in India with Oxfam America. She co-founded and, for 20 years, led the WIEGO network which is well known worldwide for its work to improve the status of the working poor in the informal economy through stronger organisations, improved statistics and research and a more favourable policy environment. 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. Dr. Chen is chair of the BRAC Global board, having earlier served on the BRAC Bangladesh board, and chair of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) board.