Demetra Smith Nightingale

Demetra Smith Nightingale is an Institute Fellow and Director of the Evidence Forum at the Urban Institute, where she conducts research and evaluations on social, economic, and labor policy issues and programs. She was also professorial lecturer at the Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration at GW, teaching graduate courses in program evaluation, and she is a fellow of the National Academy of Public Administration.. She was the Chief Evaluation Officer at the US Department of Labor from 2011 to 2016, where she developed what is recognized as one of the premier evaluation units in the federal government.

Before joining the Department of Labor, Dr. Nightingale was at the Urban Institute for three decades, and at the Johns Hopkins University, where she taught graduate courses in social policy and program evaluation. She is the author or coauthor of numerous articles and five books, including Repairing the US Social Safety Net(with Martha Burt) and Reshaping the American Workforce in a Changing Economy(with Harry Holzer). She has a BA in political science from GW and a doctorate in public policy is from the GW Trachtenberg School of Public Policy and Public Administration.