Senior Fellow
Center on Labor, Human Services and Population
Expanding my research to other countries has provided an opportunity to discover that around the world, there are many similar issues and concerns social policymakers and program administrators face. Challenges around worker security, gender equity, an aging society, child protection, and economic development are common across nations and more attention to global policy action might be warranted.
Demetra Nightingale is an expert in workforce development, welfare, and social safety net programs and policies. She conducts many evaluations, mainly of programs aimed at increasing employment, skills, and income, including currently the Young Parents Demonstration Evaluation, and the Health Profession Opportunity Grants National Evaluation.
She is the author or co-author of five books and dozens of articles. Drawing on over three decades of experience, her most recent book, Repairing the U.S. Social Safety Net, with Martha Burt (Urban Institute Press 2009) is a comprehensive overview of policies for vulnerable and disadvantaged groups and offers recommendations for improving programs. Other studies focus on skills training and economic opportunity, including "Strong Students-Strong Workers: Models for Student Success through Workforce Development and Community College Partnerships," with Harry Holzer (2009), which presented policy options to strengthen the job training systems.
From 2002 to 2010, she was on the faculty of Johns Hopkins University, before returning to the Urban Institute where she had previously been for 29 years. She is a senior research affiliate with the Poverty Center at the University of Michigan, a senior research consultant with the World Bank, and has conducted studies in Argentina, Chile, Russia, and China. She also serves on many boards and task forces and was an expert advisor to the White House Welfare Reform Working Group in 1992-93.
Areas of expertise
Workforce development, job training, employment, poverty and safety net, income security, welfare, labor markets, economic well-being
Selected Publications from Demetra Smith Nightingale
Repairing the U.S. Social Safety Net Implementation Analysis of High Growth Job Training Initiative (HGJTI) Programs Reshaping the American Workforce in a Changing Economy Publications by topic:
Employment
Workforce Development, Training and Opportunity
See all publications by Demetra Smith Nightingale
Latest Research
