Desperate Measures:
Survival Strategies of the Poorest of the Poor
Speaker Biographies
Gregory Acs is director of the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute, where his
research focuses on social insurance, social welfare, and the compensation of workers. He recently
completed a study of the factors contributing to persistently high unemployment in the United
States and policy responses to that problem. In addition, Acs has studied the low-wage labor
market, changes in welfare policies and how they have affected welfare caseloads and the wellbeing of low-income families, and how state and federal policies affect the incentives families face
as they move from welfare to work. Before returning to Urban in 2012, Acs was unit chief for labor
and income security in the Congressional Budget Office’s Health and Human Resources Division.
Acs is the author and coauthor of numerous scholarly journal articles, policy papers, briefs, and
reports to federal agencies. He coauthored Leaving Welfare: Employment and Well-Being of Families
That Left Welfare in the Post-Entitlement Era with Pamela Loprest in 2004. Acs is vice president of
the Association for Policy Analysis and Management. He is also a research affiliate with the
National Poverty Center at the University of Michigan and a member of the steering committee
for the Employment Instability, Family Well-Being, and Social Policy Research Network at the
University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration. Acs holds a PhD in economics and
social work from the University of Michigan.
Kathryn Edin is the Bloomberg distinguished professor in the department of sociology in the
Zanvyl Krieger School of Arts and Sciences and in the department of population, family, and
reproductive health in the Bloomberg School of Public Health at Johns Hopkins University. She
previously taught at Rutgers University, Northwestern University, the University of Pennsylvania,
and Harvard University, where she was a professor of public policy and management at the
Harvard Kennedy School and chair of their Multidisciplinary Program in Inequality and Social
Policy. Edin is a trustee of the Russell Sage Foundation and sits on the department of health and
human services advisory committee for the poverty research centers at Michigan, Wisconsin, and
Stanford. She is a founding member of the MacArthur Foundation–funded Network on Housing
and Families with Young Children and a past member of the MacArthur Network on the Family
and the Economy. In 2014, Edin became a member of the National Academy of Sciences and the
American Academy of Political and Social Sciences. She received her PhD in sociology from
Northwestern University.
Susan Popkin is a senior fellow and director of the Neighborhoods and Youth Development
initiative in the Metropolitan Housing and Communities Policy Center at the Urban Institute. A
nationally recognized expert on public and assisted housing, Popkin directs a research program
that focuses on the ways neighborhood environments affect outcomes for youth and on assessing
comprehensive community-based interventions. A particular focus is gender differences in
neighborhood effects and improving outcomes for marginalized girls. Popkin’s current projects
include the multisite HOST demonstration, which is testing two-generation service models for
vulnerable families in public and assisted housing while creating a network of housing providers
seeking to use housing as a platform for services; PASS, a community-based participatory research
effort to develop strategies to promote sexual health and safety for adolescents and reduce
coercive and risky behavior; the evaluation of the DC Promise Neighborhood Initiative; and the
evaluation of the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s Family-Centered Community Change Initiative.
Popkin is coauthor of the award-winning Moving to Opportunity: The Story of an American
Experiment to Fight Ghetto Poverty, lead author of The Hidden War: Crime and the Tragedy of Public
Housing in Chicago, and coauthor of Public Housing Transformation: The Legacy of Segregation.
Adrianne Todman is the executive director of the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA),
which provides housing to over 50,000 residents and is the largest affordable housing provider in
the District of Columbia. During her tenure, DCHA has created a national model to house and
assist homeless veterans, opened the first affordable assisted living facility, and increased the
number of affordable units available for low-income families. Before coming to DCHA, Todman
held positions as a Congressional Hill staffer and at the US Department of Housing and Urban
Development. She managed the national HOPE VI competition that distributed $500 million
annually to revitalize distressed public housing communities. She was named one of
HousingWire’s 2015 “Women of Influence.” Todman is vice president of the Council of Large
Public Housing Authorities. She also serves on the boards of Cultural DC, the DC Promise
Neighborhood Initiative, the Black Women’s Roundtable, and the DC Workforce Investment
Committee. She is the only housing authority director serving on the National Housing
Conference board of trustees. Todman is a member of the Leadership Greater Washington Class
of 2007 and a faculty member of the Skinner Institute’s Master’s Series for Distinguished Leaders.
She cofounded the Women in Housing Leadership Initiative and serves on the Smith College
President Council. Todman is a recipient of the federal Distinguished Service Award and of the
Hammer Award from Vice President Al Gore. She is a graduate of Smith College.
Margery Turner is senior vice president for program planning and management at the Urban
Institute, where she leads efforts to frame and conduct a forward-looking agenda of policy
research. A nationally recognized expert on urban policy and neighborhood issues, Turner has
analyzed issues of residential location, racial and ethnic discrimination and its contribution to
neighborhood segregation and inequality, and the role of housing policies in promoting residential
mobility and location choice. Among her recent publications is the book Public Housing and the
Legacy of Segregation. Turner was deputy assistant secretary for research at the US Department of
Housing and Urban Development (HUD) from 1993 to 1996, focusing HUD's research agenda on
the problems of racial discrimination, concentrated poverty, and economic opportunity in
America's metropolitan areas. During her tenure, HUD's research office launched three major
social science demonstration projects to test different strategies for helping families from
distressed inner-city neighborhoods gain access to opportunities through employment and
education. Turner has a BA in political science from Cornell University and an MA in urban and
regional planning from the George Washington University.
Sarah Rosen Wartell became the third president of the Urban Institute in February 2012. A public
policy executive and housing markets expert, she was deputy assistant to the president for
economic policy and deputy director of the National Economic Council. At the US Department of
Housing and Urban Development from 1993 to 1998, she advised the federal housing
commissioner on housing finance, mortgage markets, and consumer protection. In 2012, she was
named a “Woman of Influence” by HousingWire. Wartell cofounded the Center for American
Progress, serving as its first chief operating officer and general counsel. Later, as executive vice
president, she oversaw its policy teams and fellows. Her work focused on the economy and
housing markets, and she directed the Mortgage Finance Working Group and "Doing What
Works" government performance program. She previously practiced law with the Washington,
DC, firm Arnold & Porter and was a consultant to the bipartisan Millennial Housing Commission.
Wartell currently serves on the boards of the Low Income Investment Fund, Center for Law and
Social Policy, and Center for Urban Science and Progress at New York University. She is also a
Penn Institute for Urban Research Scholar. Her areas of expertise include community
development, consumer finance, asset building, and housing finance. Wartell has an AB degree
with honors in urban affairs from Princeton University's Woodrow Wilson School of Public and
International Affairs and a JD degree from Yale Law School.