Health economist takes over as director of La Follette School

Health economist Barbara Wolfe has succeeded the retiring Donald Nichols as director of the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s Robert M. La Follette School of Public Affairs.

Wolfe, a professor of economics and population health sciences, takes over leadership of a highly regarded graduate program that offers domestic and international degrees in public policy and administration.

“Bobbi is a nationally known expert in the economics of health care and a talented researcher with the administrative skills to build on La Follette’s excellent reputation,” says Gary Sandefur, dean of the College of Letters and Science. “We’re also tremendously thankful to have had Don Nichols lead the school and enrich its national prominence during his tenure.”

Wolfe, who has served on the UW–Madison faculty since 1977, hopes to heighten the awareness of the school’s hands-on work with Wisconsin communities and its pioneering research in public policy.

In the last semester alone, graduate students and faculty were involved with analyzing the state’s shared revenue program, evaluating the Department of Natural Resources’ Green Tier environmental program and studying billing practices at Milwaukee Health Department clinics, as well as other projects, including internationally focused projects.

“I think it’s important that people recognize the real-world projects that our faculty and students are regularly involved with as an extension of the Wisconsin Idea, and the solutions they are finding to problems in government,” Wolfe says.

It’s that sort of hands-on approach that has become a trademark of the school. Wolfe says the practical experience is vital to students hoping to make careers in public policy fields.

“It’s an exciting place,” she says. “The students here are special because they are going into an area that doesn’t traditionally pay well. There is something unique about their enthusiasm and commitment. We specialize in personal attention to our students, and we’re quite proud off that.”

To emphasize the work that the school and its affiliates are doing, Wolfe would like to create a seminar series and periodically offer a larger symposium to address topical issues.

Wolfe’s research focuses broadly on poverty and health issues, and includes analysis of the effect of expansions of public health insurance on health-care coverage and the labor force, the association of income with health, and trends in health among various U.S. populations. She is also a faculty affiliate of the UW–Madison’s Institute for Research on Poverty.

Because of the importance of health issues in society, she would like to see the school place more emphasis on the study of health care.

“I really hope to build up the health policy component of the program, because we’re all grappling with issues involving health policy, the high cost of health care and the concerns that arise from it,” she says. “The health care area needs increasing numbers of people who do high quality health care analysis.”