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 (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing) and a member of the Advisory Board of the United Nations University World Institute for Development Economics Research (UNU-WIDER) . Chen is a development practitioner and scholar who has worked with the working poor in India, South Asia, and around the world.