Fiona Blackshaw is the director of editorial services and publications at the Urban Institute, where she leads a highly motivated, highly productive team that produces more than 1,200 publications and digital products annually. As editorial director, she protects the Urban Institute's brand, intellectual independence, and reputation for quality and independence; as Urban's chief editor, she sets editorial style, standards, and processes. Blackshaw also collaborates with staff throughout Urban on advancing institutional diversity, equity, and inclusion, and she trains researchers on leading writing teams and improving the clarity and structure of their written products.

Since joining Urban in 2002, Blackshaw has edited thousands of print and digital products, highlighting research from all of Urban’s policy centers and major initiatives. She also edited and oversaw production of a dozen Urban Institute Press books, including Subprime Mortgages: America’s Latest Boom and Bust and Performance Measurement: Getting Results. Her recent editorial work has focused on increasing mobility from poverty, examining the disparate economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on communities of color, and using data to advance social equity.

Before coming to Urban, Blackshaw was a project manager and production editor at Communications Development Inc., a copyeditor and proofreader at Graduate School USA, and a freelance copyeditor. She has a BA in English and theatre from Oberlin College and an MA in text and performance studies from Kings College, London.