COVID-19 Task Force

Poverty Summit - February 19, 2021
Join a Working Group
Contact IGPA Director
Robin Fretwell Wilson
- +1 (217) 244-1227
- wils@uillinois.edu
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.
Recent Reports
TASK FORCE LEAD

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
Featured
Replenish, Replace, Repair: How Illinois is Using its ARPA Aid
Task Force members

Laurence Appel
Affiliation Chief Financial Officer at University of Illinois Hospital and Health Sciences System | University of Illinois Chicago
Email lsappel@uic.edu

Marc Atkins
Affiliation Professor and Director of the Institute for Juvenile Research, Department of Psychiatry, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago
Email atkins@uic.edu

Beverly Bunch
Affiliation Professor, School of Public Management and Policy | University of Illinois Springfield
Email bbunc1@uis.edu

Patricia Byrnes
Affiliation Associate Professor, College of Business and Management | University of Illinois Springfield
Email pbyrn1@uis.edu

Joseph Cheng
Affiliation Research Professor and Director of Special Projects, Gies School of Business | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email jlcheng@illinois.edu

Francis Choi
Affiliation PhD candidate, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago
Email fchoi3@uic.edu

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
Email jcook@uic.edu

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
Email tcordova@uic.edu

Larry DeBrock
Affiliation Professor Emeritus, Gies School of Business | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email ldebrock@illinois.edu

Michael Disher
Affiliation Research Assistant | University of Illinois Chicago
Email mdishe2@uic.edu

Joshua Drucker
Affiliation Associate Professor, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Springfield
Email jdruck@uic.edu

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
Email mfinkin@illinois.edu

Tamara Fuller
Affiliation Research Associate Professor and Director of the Children and Family Research Center, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email t-fuller@illinois.edu

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
Email bjgaines@illinois.edu

Fred Giertz
Affiliation Professor Emeritus, Institute of Government and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email jgiertz@illinois.edu

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
Email bgoul2@uis.edu

Amber Hathcock
Affiliation Assistant Professor and Associate Director of Academic Programs, Center for Global Health, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago
Email amhathco@uic.edu

Rosalba Hernandez
Affiliation Associate Professor, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email rherna17@illinois.edu

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
Email hewings@illinois.edu

Joseph K. Hoereth
Affiliation Director, Institute for Policy and Civic Engagement, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago
Email jhoereth@uic.edu

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
Email fjone@illinois.edu

Richard Kaplan
Affiliation Guy Raymond Jones Chair in Law, College of Law | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email rkaplan@illinois.edu

Amanda Kass
Affiliation Associate Director of the Government Finance Research Center, College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago
Email akass6@uic.edu

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
Email jonklein@uic.edu

Jerry Krishnan
Affiliation Associate Vice Chancellor for Population Health Sciences and Professor, School of Public Health | University of Illinois Chicago
Email jakris@uic.edu

Arwi Kriz
Affiliation Visiting Assistant Professor, School of Public Management and Policy | University of Illinois Springfield
Email asrit1@uis.edu

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
Email aelewis@uic.edu

Janet Liechty
Affiliation Associate Professor, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email jliechty@illinois.edu

Darren Lubotsky
Affiliation Associate Professor, Department of Economics, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Chicago
Email lubotsky@uic.edu

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
Email mazzonej@illinois.edu

Christopher Z. Mooney
Affiliation Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Chicago
Email cmoon1@uic.edu

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
Email hmusick@uic.edu

Brian Ogolsky
Affiliation Associate Professor, Women & Gender in Global Perspectives Program, College of Liberal Arts & Sciences | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email bogolsky@illinois.edu

Michael Pagano
Affiliation Special Assistant to the Chancellor | University of Illinois Chicago
Email mapagano@uic.edu

Louis Papoff
Affiliation Chief Business Officer, UI Physicians Group, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago
Email louisp@uic.edu

Brenda Parker
Affiliation Associate Professor, College of Urban Planning and Policy | University of Illinois Chicago
Email bkparker@uic.edu

Lisa Powell
Affiliation Distinguished Professor and Director in the Division of Health Policy and Administration, School of Public Health | University of Illinois Chicago
Email powelll@uic.edu

Tara Powell
Affiliation Associate Professor, School of Social Work | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email tlpowell@illinois.edu

Kent Redfield
Affiliation Professor Emeritus, Department of Political Science | University of lllinois Springfield
Email kredf1@uis.edu

Julian Reif
Affiliation Associate Professor and RC Evans Data Analytics Fellow, Gies College of Business | University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign
Email jreif@illinois.edu

Mark Rosenblatt
Affiliation Executive Dean and Professor of Ophthalmology, College of Medicine | University of Illinois Chicago
Email mrosenbl@uic.edu

Jenni Schneiderman
Affiliation Visiting Senior Design Strategist, Population Health Sciences program, Office of the Vice Chancellor for Health Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago
Email jschne33@uic.edu

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
Email sriraj@uic.edu

James Swartz
Affiliation Professor, College of Social Work, Office of the Vice-Chancellor for Health Affairs | University of Illinois Chicago
Email jaswartz@uic.edu

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
Email theodore@uic.edu
