14 Facts About Martha Chen

Martha Chen is an American academic, scholar and social worker, who is presently a lecturer in public policy at the Harvard Kennedy School and senior advisor of the global research-policy-action network WIEGO and a member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research.

Martha Chen 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.

Martha Chen received the Friends of Bangladesh Liberation War award by the Government of Bangladesh.

Martha Chen was born on February 9,1944, to Barbara and Jim Alter.

Martha Chen's grandparents had come to India as missionaries of the Presbyterian church.

Martha Chen grew up largely in the hills of Mussoorie and Landour and in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand.

Martha Chen's brothers were Tom Alter, the well-known film and theatre actor, and John Alter.

Martha Chen then went on to provide a cyclone relief operation with three other women.

Martha Chen joined Harvard University in 1987 and teaches at the Harvard Kennedy School.

Martha Chen has undertaken four field studies in India: on household coping strategies during a prolonged drought in a village in Gujarat; on widows in 14 villages in seven states; on the membership of the Self-Employed Women's Association, and on the urban clients of the SEWA Bank.

Martha Chen carried out policy research on issues relating to the working poor, taught several courses on international development, and provided advisory services to international development agencies.

In 1999, the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study at Harvard University invited Martha Chen to be its Horner Distinguished Visiting Professor in recognition of her scholarship on the situation of working poor women around the world.

Martha Chen edited a volume of proceedings from the conference called Widows in Rural India: Social Neglect and Public Action.

Martha Chen is one of the Board Members of the Technological Change Lab at Columbia University.