Kathleen Short began working at the Census Bureau in 1984 after receiving her doctorate in economics from the University of Michigan. From 1991 to 1999, she served as chief of the Poverty and Health Statistics Branch and is currently conducting research on improving statistical measures of poverty. Over her career at the Census Bureau, Short has worked primarily in the area of measuring economic well-being and has published reports and professional journal articles on measuring material hardship, poverty and housing, poverty and medical expenses, poverty measures that take account of assets and debt, and methods of measuring poverty.