About the Editor

Marc Simpson is the founder and lead editor of The Urban Brief.

The Urban Brief was created out of a frustration with how often urban policy, sustainability, and community issues are discussed at a distance and  stripped of lived experience, reduced to headlines, or buried behind jargon. Cities are where policy becomes real: where housing shortages appear as eviction notices, environmental decisions shape public health outcomes, and infrastructure choices quietly define daily life.

Marc’s academic background is in Urban and Community Studies, with coursework focused on public policy, globalization, diversity in human development, and sustainability. Alongside his studies, he has spent years working in healthcare, where he has seen firsthand how policy failures (and successes) play out at the street level. That perspective deeply informs his work; policy is never abstract, and data always carries a human cost.

The Urban Brief sits at the intersection of urban policy, sustainability, equity, and public life. The publication is intentionally small, independent, and editorially curious, grounded in the belief that serious analysis does not need to be inaccessible, and that critical reporting can remain readable, precise, and human.

Marc approaches this work not only as a writer and editor, but as someone planning to continue in public-interest spaces, including law and policy. His goal is to build a publication that values clarity over noise, nuance over outrage, and accountability over performative discourse.