Margaret Simms

Margaret Constance Simms
Nationality	American
Alma mater	Carleton College (BA) Stanford University (PhD)
Awards	Samuel Z. Westerfield Award
Scientific career
Institutions	Atlanta University Urban Institute Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies
Website	https://www.urban.org/author/margaret-simms

Margaret Constance Simms (born 1946 in St. Louis, Missouri) is a 21st century American economist whose work focuses on the economic well being of African Americans.

Early life

Margaret C. Simms was born 1946 in St. Louis and spent the majority of her early life there, growing up with two significantly older brothers. Both of her parents were college-educated and many of her relatives were academics who worked for a variety of universities across the country. She attended a segregated school until 5th grade; her middle and high schools were integrated.

She entered Carleton College in Minnesota intending to major in chemistry or physics but found them irrelevant to the real world. While taking courses to fulfill distribution requirements, she found an interest in economics and graduated with a BA in 1967. After graduation, Simms moved to California for a PhD in economics at Stanford University. At Stanford, Simms was one of four African Americans and one of five women studying economics. She completed a first year fellowship with the Foreign Affairs Scholars Program, but during her fellowship, Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated. This event and its consequential riots ultimately lead her to shift her focus on domestic issues and policies. During her dissertation, she worked at the University of California, Santa Cruz.

Career

Simms spent several years teaching at Atlanta University and then became a Senior Research Associate and Director of the Minorities and Social Policy Program at the D.C. based think tank Urban Institute. She then served as the first woman Vice President of Governance and Economic Analysis at the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, the top think tank of African American policy. During her twenty one years there, she also served as Vice President for Research and Interim President. Simms also spent a year as a Bookings economic policy fellow at the United States Department of Housing and Urban Development consulted for many organizations including the US Department of State and the Rockefeller Foundation. Since 1994, Simms has served as a member of the National Academy of Social Science and now serves as Vice President of its Board of Directors. In 2007, she returned to the Urban Institute, where she directs the Low Income Working Families Initiative, focusing on "the effects of poverty on individuals and the country as a whole, and possible solutions." She is a former president of the National Economic Association.

Select bibliography

• Slipping Through the Cracks: The Status of Black Women (1986)
• The Economics of Race and Crime (1988)
• Chinese Economy (2018)

Awards, honors, and nominations

Simms has received many awards and elections for her work, including the election to the American Academy of Arts and Science and serving on the National Research Council Committee on the Fiscal Future of the United States. Simms was the second woman to be awarded the Samuel Z. Westerfield Award, presented by the National Economic Association, which honors the public service and scholarly achievement of African American economists. In 2010, she was awarded an Honorary Doctors of Laws Degree by Carleton College where she earned her Bachelor's Degree.

Editorials

The following pieces have been edited by Simms:

• Job Creation Prospects and Strategies
• Economic Perspectives on Affirmative Action
• Moving Up With Baltimore: Creating Career Ladders for Blacks in the Private Sector
• Slipping Through the Cracks: The Status of Black Women (Written and Co-Edited with Julianne Malveaux

External links

• Appearances on C-SPAN