Marta Tienda is the Maurice P During Professor in Demographic Studies; Professor of Sociology and Public Affairs, Emeritus; and joins CRCW as a Visiting Senior Research Scholar.

Dr. Tienda's research has focused on race and ethnic differences in various metrics of social inequality – ranging from poverty and welfare to education and employment – to address how ascribed attributes acquire their social and economic significance. Through various studies of immigration, population diversification and concentrated poverty, she has documented social arrangements and life course trajectories that both perpetuate and reshape socioeconomic inequality.

Tienda is co-author and co-editor of several books, including The Hispanic Population of the United States (1987), Divided Opportunities (1988), The Color of Opportunity (2001), Youth in Cities (2002). Ethnicity and Causal Mechanisms (2005), Multiple Origins, Uncertain Destinies (2006), Hispanics and the Future of America (2006), and Africa on the Move (2006). She has published over 200 scholarly papers in academic journals and edited collections, in addition to numerous research bulletins and articles for a lay audience. She holds a BA in Spanish from Michigan State University and a MA and Ph.D., both in Sociology, from the University of Texas at Austin. She received honorary doctorates from The Ohio State University (2002), Lehman College (2003), and Bank Street College (2006).