News: Social Policy

Academic debate in the classroom wasn't quite enough, Lara Rosen found, a discovery that eventually led her to enroll at the La Follette School of Public Affairs to study social and urban policy at the state and local levels.

La Follette School student Jen Winter spent much of her summer going to meetings and trying to schedule meetings. As an intern with the U.S. Mission to the European Union in Brussels, Belgium, she gained an up-close introduction to the U.S. State Department, the European Union and the life of a foreign service officer.

Health insurance levels and trends of inequality is the topic of the next La Follette School seminar. Kosali Simon, a professor with the School of Public and Environmental Affairs at Indiana University, will present at noon on Tuesday, November 30, in the La Follette School conference room.

Making the best match for volunteers and the tasks they do is alum Kim Zamastil's secret ingredient for keeping thousands of people engaged in community service at St. Patrick Center, Missouri's largest provider of services to homeless people.

Professor Pamela Herd appeared on Wisconsin Public Television's "Here and Now" in honor of Social Security's 75th anniversary.

A desire to fight poverty by improving public policy brings Hope Harvey to the La Follette School. She finds that the Master of Public Affairs program is teaching her the quantitative methods she needs to strengthen her understanding of the theoretical aspects of poverty and policies formed to alleviate it.

La Follette School faculty share their expertise in many ways and in many places throughout the school year and during the summer. Here is a sampling of their activities:

Professor Karen Holden is pleased to find that she will be working during her retirement — and that her efforts will help more Americans secure their own retirements. Holden will serve as co-principal investigator for a financial literacy research grant the campus Center for Financial Security received. The U.S. Social Security Administration has awarded the Center for Financial Security first-year funding of $1.48 million as one member of the administration's new Financial Literacy Research Consortium. Boston College and the RAND Corporation also will house research centers under this consortium.

"Single Mothers, Minimum Wages and Welfare Participation" will be discussed at the Tuesday, December 1, La Follette School Seminar at 12:15 p.m. in the La Follette School conference room.

Two La Follette School of Public Affairs faculty members at the University of Wisconsin–Madison have received honors from the William T. Grant Foundation to advance the well-being of families and children.