Marcela Montes is a policy program manager in the Research to Action Lab at the Urban Institute. She works to ensure Urban’s research is widely used by practitioners, advocates, and policymakers to improve economic mobility and inclusive growth in local communities. Montes manages Urban’s engagement in the Shared Prosperity Partnership, a joint initiative of The Kresge Foundation, the Urban Institute, the Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program, and Living Cities.

Before joining Urban, Montes was a program manager in the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program, where she managed and contributed to multisite and multiyear research projects elevating the strategic approaches and outcomes of local nonprofit and community college–based workforce development programs and industry-focused intermediary organizations. Before that, Montes coordinated education projects at UnidosUS, including identifying promising practices for addressing the needs of Latino students in after-school programs.

Montes received her BA in government and politics from the University of Maryland, College Park, and her MA in Latin American studies from Tulane University.