Many factors contribute to creating a more just and equitable society; first and foremost is the insistence by citizens that we can collectively achieve a better outcome. Thoughtful research that illuminates how economic, political, and social institutions support or hinder our collective values is a critical contribution to the process, and the opportunity to improve our understanding is the reason I became an applied researcher.
Elaine Waxman is a senior fellow in the Tax and Income Supports Division at the Urban Institute. Her expertise includes food insecurity, food access, federal nutrition programs, social determinants of health, and broader issues affecting families with low incomes. Waxman also coleads Urban’s Disability Equity Policy Initiative. Waxman previously was vice president of research and nutrition at Feeding America. She has coauthored numerous articles in peer-reviewed journals, including the Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, the American Journal of Public Health, Applied Economics Perspectives and Policy, and Health Affairs. Waxman is a Technical Advisory Group Member for Feeding America, a research fellow with the Baylor Collaborative on Hunger and Poverty, a member of the editorial board of the Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, and a member of the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. She is also a recipient of the inaugural William and Gail Gorham Scholar/Analyst Program and a Gorham Mentor, Class of 2024.
She received her MPP and PhD from the University of Chicago, where she is a lecturer at the Crown School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice.
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