The Ongoing Problem of Poverty: Food Insecurity, Families, and Faith

The Center for Public Justice's annual Kuyper Lecture seeks to focus attention on significant questions of religion in public life and Jesus' Lordship over all creation. Their goal is to inspire and equip Christians to pursue a common calling to faithful citizenship and to affirm the vital role of government in upholding public justice.

The 2022 Kuyper Lecture will feature Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach speaking on The Ongoing Problem of Poverty: Food Insecurity, Families, and Faith. 

Schanzenbach is the Director of the Institute for Policy Research at Northwestern University. She is an economist who studies policies aimed at improving the lives of children in poverty, including education, health, and income support policies. Her work traces the impact of major public policies such as the Food Stamp Program, school finance reform, and early childhood education on children's long-term outcomes. She is the Margaret Walker Alexander Professor in the School of Education and Social Policy at Northwestern.

Schanzenbach was formerly the Director of The Hamilton Project at the Brookings Institution, an economic policy initiative that promotes policies to enhance broad-based economic growth. She graduated magna cum laude from Wellesley College in 1995 with a BA in economics and religion, and received a PhD in economics in 2002 from Princeton University. She is a research associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research, a non-resident senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, and a research associate at the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She is an elected member of the National Academy of Education and the National Academy of Social Insurance.

Watch a recording of the lecture here.

The Kuyper Lecture will be held in conjunction with the Henry Institute's Symposium on Religion and Public Life.