Lena Simet

Lena Simet is a senior researcher and advocate on poverty and inequality at Human Rights Watch. Her research focuses on social protection, labor rights in non-standard forms of employment like the app-based gig economy, and how austerity-driven budget cuts and the privatization of basic essential services can undermine human rights. Lena is a member of the Coalition for Human Rights in Development's Steering Committee. 

Before joining Human Rights Watch, Lena was the coordinator and lead researcher of the Global Urban Futures Project at The New School University in New York, focusing on inequality, jobless economic growth, and climate change. She taught in the New School's international affairs program and the economics department at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice. She also worked as a consultant for non-governmental and international agencies, including UNDP, UN-Habitat, and GIZ. Lena is the author of the book "Cities and Economic Inequality in Latin America: Intra-Urban Inequality in Argentina" (Routledge, April 2022), and holds a PhD in Public and Urban Policy from The New School.