Martha M. Galvez

Martha Galvez is a senior research associate in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute. Her expertise is in housing and homelessness policy, with a focus on examining how interventions aimed at improving housing stability and choice for low-income families are implemented, and how they affect individuals, families, and neighborhoods. Galvez’s current projects include studies on housing stability, child welfare, and neighborhood mobility outcomes for low-income families who receive housing choice vouchers, and a study examining the role of race/ethnicity in housing and neighborhood location decisions. She is also interested in improving access to and use of integrated housing and social service data in order to understand the characteristics of families living in subsidized housing and the housing and service needs of vulnerable households. She has experience in mixed-methods research and has designed and managed studies involving collection and analysis of complex administrative, survey, and qualitative data.

Galvez joined Urban from the Research & Data Analysis division of the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, where her work revolved around developing the state’s housing research capacity. She has held positions in several state and local organizations, including the West Coast Poverty Center at the University of Washington, the Seattle Housing Authority, the NYC Department of Small Business Services, and the NYC Citizens Housing and Planning Council.

Galvez earned her BA in sociology from Wesleyan University and her MUP and PhD in public policy/administration from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School at New York University.