COVID-19 Task Force

Poverty Summit - February 19, 2021

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Robin Fretwell Wilson

The COVID-19 pandemic has reshaped many of IGPA’s efforts since its onset, from faculty engagement to publications and beyond. In April 2020, IGPA launched a COVID-19 Task Force focused on the state’s economic and fiscal health, healthcare workforce, and the resilience of families and communities. IGPA publications, authored by scholars from across the University of Illinois System, are undergirding conversations on the effects of the pandemic and how policymakers can respond. Creative new programming also includes our “Policy from People” series, which brings an interdisciplinary lens to capturing qualitative and quantitative answers about how policy plays out in practice.

Initiatives from this series include the Citizen Scientist COVID-19 Journaling Project, which shared personal pandemic stories from Illinoisans. Our Pandemic Stress Indicator Expert Panel survey and focus groups on access to justice during COVID-19 have further revealed common themes among on-the-ground challenges.

IGPA’s Policy Spotlight series grew out of the work of the task force. Policy Spotlights from the task force include two on the housing crisis spurred by the pandemic: one mining lessons from the 2008 housing market collapse for solutions to the current crisis and another illustrating how women are especially vulnerable to housing insecurity. Policy Spotlights focused on protecting children vulnerable to neglect and abuse, the pandemic’s effects on educators, and the pressing need for families to have access to childcare for economic recovery are also among the task force’s publications.

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TASK FORCE LEAD

wilson_robin

Robin Fretwell Wilson

Director, Institute of Government and Public Affairs; Professor, Mildred Van Voorhis Jones Chair in Law, College of Law | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

wils@uillinois.edu

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Task Force members

Laurence Appel

Affiliation Chief Financial Officer at University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System | University of Illinois Chicago

Marc Atkins

Affiliation Professor and Director of the Institute for Juvenile Research, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago

Beverly Bunch

Affiliation Professor, School of Public Management and Policy | University of Illinois Springfield

Patricia Byrnes

Affiliation Associate Professor, College of Business and Management | University of Illinois Springfield

Joseph Cheng

Affiliation Research Professor and Director of Special Projects, Gies School of Business | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Francis Choi

Affiliation PhD candidate, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago

Judith Cook

Affiliation Professor and Director of the Center on Mental Health Services Research and Policy, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago

Teresa Córdova

Affiliation Professor and Director of the Great Cities Institute, Department of Latin American and Latino Studies, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Chicago

Larry DeBrock

Affiliation Professor Emeritus, Gies School of Business | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Michael Disher

Affiliation Research Assistant | University of Illinois Chicago

Joshua Drucker

Affiliation Associate Professor, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Springfield

Matthew W. Finkin

Affiliation Professor and Director of the Program in Comparative Labor and Employment Law & Policy, College of Law | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Tamara Fuller

Affiliation Research Associate Professor and Director of the Children and Family Research Center, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Brian J. Gaines

Affiliation W. Russell Arrington Professor of State Politics, Department of Political Science, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Fred Giertz

Affiliation Professor Emeritus, Institute of Government and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Betsy Goulet

Affiliation Coordinator of the UIS Child Advocacy Studies Program and Clinical Assistant Professor, College of Public Affairs and Administration | University of Illinois Springfield

Amber Hathcock

Affiliation Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Academic Programs, Center for Global Health, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago

Rosalba Hernandez

Affiliation Associate Professor, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Geoffrey Hewings

Affiliation Emeritus Director of the Regional Economics Applications Laboratory (REAL), Department of Urban and Regional Planning, College of Fine & Applied Arts | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Joseph K. Hoereth

Affiliation Director, Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago

Faye E. Jones

Affiliation Director, Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Memorial Law Library and Clinical Professor of Law, College of Law | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Richard Kaplan

Affiliation Guy Raymond Jones Chair in Law, College of Law | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Amanda Kass

Affiliation Associate Director of the Government Finance Research Center, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago

Jonathan Klein

Affiliation Associate Vice Chancellor for Research and the Savithri and Samuel Raj Professor of Pediatrics, Executive Vice-head of the Department of Pediatrics, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago

Jerry Krishnan

Affiliation Associate Vice Chancellor for Population Health Sciences and Professor, School of Public Health | University of Illinois Chicago

Arwi Kriz

Affiliation Visiting Assistant Professor, School of Public Management and Policy | University of Illinois Springfield

Amanda Lewis

Affiliation Distinguished Professor and Director of Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy, Department of Sociology, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Chicago

Janet Liechty

Affiliation Associate Professor, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Darren Lubotsky

Affiliation Associate Professor, Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Chicago

Jason Mazzone

Affiliation Albert E. Jenner, Jr. Professor of Law and Director of the Program in Constitutional Theory, History, and Law, College of Law | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Christopher Z. Mooney

Affiliation Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Chicago

Hugh Musick

Affiliation Associate Director, Population Health Sciences Program and Co-Director, Institute for Healthcare Delivery Design, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago

Brian Ogolsky

Affiliation Associate Professor, Women & Gender in Global Perspectives Program, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Michael Pagano

Affiliation Special Assistant to the Chancellor | University of Illinois Chicago

Louis Papoff

Affiliation Chief Business Officer, UI Physicians Group, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago

Brenda Parker

Affiliation Associate Professor, College of Urban Planning and Policy | University of Illinois Chicago

Lisa Powell

Affiliation Distinguished Professor and Director in the Division of Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health | University of Illinois Chicago

Tara Powell

Affiliation Associate Professor, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Kent Redfield

Affiliation Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science | University of lllinois Springfield

Julian Reif

Affiliation Associate Professor and RC Evans Data Analytics Fellow, Gies College of Business | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Mark Rosenblatt

Affiliation Executive Dean and Professor of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago

Jenni Schneiderman

Affiliation Visiting Senior Design Strategist, Population Health Sciences program, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago

P. S. Sriraj

Affiliation Research Associate Professor and Director of the Urban Transportation Center, Institute for Environmental Science and Policy, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago

James Swartz

Affiliation Professor, College of Social Work, Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Health Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago

Nikolas Theodore

Affiliation Professor and Head, Department of Urban Planning and Policy, Director of the Center for Urban Economic Development, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago

Stevan Weine

Affiliation Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Director of the Center for Global Health, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago