The Research to Action Lab at the Urban Institute is, to me, an irreplaceable part of the important work done at Urban. Research can be helpful to policymakers only if it can be understood, be replicated at scale, and comes with technical assistance from highly qualified practitioners. The Lab is the vehicle that translates Urban’s cutting-edge research into actionable progress.
Martha Fedorowicz is a training and technical assistance manager in the Research to Action Lab at the Urban Institute, where she directs, designs, and delivers training and technical assistance to local government agencies, community foundations, cross-sector collaboratives, and nonprofits on the topics of upward economic mobility, policy and systems change, affordable housing, and transportation. Fedorowicz served as the director of technical assistance for Urban’s Upward Mobility Initiative from November 2022 to July 2025. Before joining Urban, Fedorowicz was a special projects administrator with the City of Lansing’s Department of Neighborhoods and Citizen Engagement and a summer policy associate in the City of Detroit’s Department of Neighborhoods. Fedorowicz holds a bachelor’s degree in political science and French from the University of Michigan and a master’s degree in public policy from the University of Michigan’s Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy. She served as a youth development Peace Corps volunteer in Morocco from 2012 to 2014.
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