Fiona Blackshaw is senior advisor for communications at the Urban Institute, where she helps protect the Urban Institute's brand, intellectual independence, and reputation for quality and independence. She previously spent seven years as Urban's director of editorial services and publications, leading a highly motivated team that produces more than 1,400 publications and digital products annually. Before that, she was a senior managing editor and a senior editor. 

Since joining the Urban Institute in 2002, Blackshaw has edited thousands of print and digital products, highlighting research from all of Urban’s policy centers and major initiatives. Highlights include the culminating publications for the Assessing the New Federalism project, the inaugural publications for the Tax Policy Center and the Housing Finance Policy Center, and cross-cutting products for the Partnership on Mobility from Poverty and Urban's Next50. Blackshaw 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. 

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.