Colleen Heflin, professor of public administration and international affairs and senior research associate in the Center for Policy Research, has been awarded a $74,986 grant from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The grant will fund research into the effects of parental employment on access to and maintenance of child care and child-care subsidies.

This project will be codirected by Heflin and Taryn Morrissey, associate professor of public administration and policy at American University. They plan to examine the interplay between parental employment, receipt of child-care subsidies, and early care and education (ECE) among low-income workers. The goal is to better understand barriers to accessing and maintaining ECE, and to reveal points where child-care subsidy programs can increase stable access to ECE, thereby reducing disparities in socioeconomic achievement and health.

An expert in social policy, food and nutrition policy, and social demography, Heflin is the author of more than 50 peer-reviewed articles, including papers in the American Sociological Review, the American Review of Public Administration, Social Problems, and Social Science and Medicine. Her research has been funded by organizations ranging from the U.S. Departments of Agriculture and Health and Human Services to the National Center for Poverty Research. Beyond the academy, Heflin has also worked as a consultant with both Feeding America, a nonprofit seeking to increase access to food banks and pantries for people in need, and the Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services.

The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation has worked for more than 45 years to improve health and health care. The foundation works alongside others to build a national “culture of health” that provides everyone in America a fair and just opportunity for health and well-being. For more information, visit the foundation’s website, or follow the foundation on Twitter or on Facebook.

02/03/20