Careers in Poverty Research and Policy

On April 6, 2006, a panel of leading policymakers, advisors, and activists discussed their career and school choices and answered questions from the audience. The event was organized as part of ASPE-funded Area Poverty Research Center activities designed to encourage interest in poverty research and policy, and to help build a new generation of scholars and practitioners.

The panel discussion has been made available via Web Cast

For more information on Web Cast technology please see the University of Wisconsin Extension, Instructional Communications Systems. The Web Cast is free for viewers; software requirements are defined on the Web Cast link above.

Participants in the Careers Panel

Moderator

Robert Haveman, Emeritus Professor of Economics & Public Affairs, UW

About the Panel Participants

Laura Dresser is Research Director, Center on Wisconsin Strategy (COWS), UW–Madison. She has worked with labor, community, and business partners on projects to improve access and advancement for workers in Madison, Milwaukee, and nationally. Principal among these activities have been the Jobs With a Future Partnerships and the Milwaukee Jobs Initiative. She has served as a consultant or technical advisor to the AFL-CIO, the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development, and many foundations on issues of workforce development reform, the role of unions in labor markets, and improving opportunities and outcomes for low-wage work. Dr. Dresser holds a Ph.D. in Economics and a master's degree in Social Work from the University of Michigan.

Tamara Grigsby is a Wisconsin State Representative, representing the 18th Assembly district, comprising parts of Milwaukee’s north side. She serves on the Assembly’s committees on Children and Families, Criminal Justice and Homeland Security, Public Health, and Tourism. As a freshman member of the legislature she has worked diligently on W-2 and child welfare reform as well as addressing racial disparities in the well-being of Wisconsin residents. Rep. Grigsby is a former social worker, child advocate, and family counselor, and has been a program manager for the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families. She was also an adjunct professor of social work at Carroll College and UW–Milwaukee. Rep. Grigsby holds a master’s degree in Social Work from the University of Wisconsin.

Alan M. Hershey is a Senior Fellow at Mathematica Policy Research, Inc., a national organization carrying out research and evaluation on a wide range of social policy issues such as health care, welfare, education, employment, nutrition, and early childhood education and child development. He serves as the coordinator of Mathematica studies of welfare programs and related issues such as family formation and marriage. Mr. Hershey has directed or played a major role in Mathematica studies on services to teenage parents, welfare-to-work programs, school-to-work transition. He is now directing a major multisite demonstration to test if sensitively designed and well-implemented interventions can help young unmarried parents improve and sustain their relationships, increase their chances of achieving a healthy marriage if they choose to wed, and enhance the development of their child. Mr. Hershey holds a Master of Public Affairs degree from Princeton University.

Jennifer Noyes is a Researcher at the Institute for Research on Poverty; previously she was a senior fellow at the Madison office of the Hudson Institute's Welfare Policy Center. She has served in senior positions with the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development. As the administrator of the department's Division of Economic Support, she was responsible for the development and direction of Wisconsin's programs designed to assist and support low-income families in their efforts to achieve self-sufficiency, in particular the state's ground-breaking welfare replacement program, Wisconsin Works (W-2). She also worked for 11 years in the Wisconsin Legislative Audit Bureau, a nonpartisan legislative service agency charged with completing program evaluations and other audits of state and public agencies. Ms. Noyes holds a master’s degree in Public Affairs from the University of Minnesota.

Steven J. Schooler is Executive Director of Porchlight, an agency that strives to decrease the Dane County homeless population by providing shelter, housing, supportive services and a sense of community. Porchlight provides 221 units of low-cost housing, one emergency shelter for homeless men and women suffering from serious mental illness (Safe Haven), one emergency shelter for men (Drop-In Shelter) and a day-time resource center (Hospitality House) that provides all homeless persons with employment, housing counseling, emergency housing assistance, telephones, and mail service. Mr. Schooler holds degrees in Economics from George Washington University and Law from the University of Michigan.