News: Wisconsin Idea

La Follette School Assistant Professor Mariel Barnes was awarded a Wisconsin Idea Collaboration Grant to evaluate the effectiveness of flexible financial assistance in helping survivors of domestic violence find and maintain stable housing situations.

This year, several projects for the Workshop course focused on issues related to equity and serving under-resourced communities. One group of students collaborated with Sixteenth Street Community Health Centers (SSCHC), a federally qualified community health center serving primarily low-income patients on the south side of Milwaukee. SSCHC has long recognized that socio-economic factors—such as income, education, employment, public safety, and housing—all contribute to quality and length of life.

Helping officials in Brown County determine if removal of harmful blue green algae in Green Bay would have net costs or benefits really felt like an apt application of the Wisconsin Idea. Helping to determine if the water quality could be improved would have a direct impact on many Wisconsinites.

The La Follette School has a been a great academic complement to the law program and has provided me with insights in cost-benefit analysis, policymaking, public budgeting, and economics that my fellow law students don’t currently have. I feel that on top of painting a clearer picture of how well-run governments function, the La Follette School makes me highly marketable and grants me invaluable skills.

My research explores how social, environmental, and genetic factors combine to shape human development and the implications for public policy, using a wide range of quantitative tools, including quasi-experimental, computational, and biosocial methods.

Sam Austin (MIPA ’08) joined the Wisconsin Department of Health Services (DHS) as a senior policy advisor in December 2019.

La Follette School staff member David Wright-Racette served on the search and screen committee for the next dean and director of UW–Madison’s Division of Extension. On April 28, UW–Madison Chancellor Rebecca Blank announced the hiring of Karl Martin, who joined Extension in 2014.

The Wisconsin Ideas Conference is back for its second year, bringing students interested in government and public policy a unique opportunity to publish and refine their ideas, participate in lively discussions, and earn scholarships. Applications for the conference, April 12–14 at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, are due Saturday, January 26 at 11:59 p.m. (CST).

The La Follette School of Public Affairs and Department of Political Science at UW–Madison along with the Wisconsin Alumni Association (WAA) are hosting a series of Real Town Hall events in preparation for the 2018 midterm elections.