News: Housing

I spent a year working at a rural homeless shelter in Colorado. This experience sparked my desire to work in policy, specifically housing and welfare policy. I am hoping to use my MPA to help make housing more accessible for everyone. 

Working in homeless services in Seattle, I had an ability to impact the specific policies of the program I managed, but I often felt constrained by a larger system of regulations and grant requirements. I wanted to better understand how policies that shape community welfare are developed and to have a hand in trying to shape thoughtful, effective, and equitable policies.

A team from UW–Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty (IRP), including La Follette School Professor J. Michael Collins, received a UW2020 award to increase the quality and amount of housing-related data available to the Wisconsin Administrative Data Core, a unique data resource at IRP. 

I plan to work in Chicago either in the public or nonprofit sector after graduation. I would love to work in the local government such as Cook County or the City of Chicago.

Abby Swetz (MPA ’19) spoke about the need for housing for survivors of domestic violence in Wisconsin during a segment of PBS Wisconsin’s Noon Wednesday on November 6, 2019.

With generous support from Herb Kohl Philanthropies, the La Follette School of Public Affairs at the University of Wisconsin–Madison is pleased to announce its inaugural La Follette Forum. The first conference will focus on health policy.

First-year student Michael Caniglia presented a paper he wrote for the La Follette School’s Policymaking Process course (PA 874) during a conference in Washington, DC, March 29 and 30.

During my undergraduate studies, I worked at a municipal consulting firm (Center for Government Research), that worked with local communities to improve government services. I enjoyed the work as well as knowing that we were improving people’s lives. I determined that a public affairs degree would give me the skills that I’d need to pursue that line of work as a career.

The networking opportunities and feedback regarding professional development provided by the school have been particularly helpful in defining my career goals and supporting my career search.

2000 alum Carole Schaeffer comments in an InBusiness discussion about multifamily housing development and the boom in luxury apartments in Madison. She is director of Smart Growth Greater Madison, and president of her own consulting firm.