Jennifer Gaddis

Jennifer Gaddis is an Associate Professor in the Department of Civil Society & Community Studies at the University of Wisconsin–Madison’s School of Human Ecology. Her research focuses on school food politics, labor-centered approaches to systemic change, and the intersection of care economy principles with public policy. She earned a PhD in Social Ecology from Yale University and a BS in Materials Science and Engineering from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign.

Dr. Gaddis is a co-author of Transforming School Food Politics around the World (2024) and author of The Labor of Lunch (2019), which won awards from the National Women’s Studies Association and the International Association of Culinary Professionals. Her work emphasizes valuing school nutrition workers, scratch cooking, and equitable labor practices in food systems.

She leads a $1.5M USDA-funded study on the K-12 school food service workforce and collaborates with organizations like the Healthy School Meals for All Wisconsin coalition. Current projects include a statewide Wisconsin school nutrition workforce study and the Feelings about Food initiative examining parental engagement in school meal programs.

Affiliations include the Center for Community and Nonprofit Studies, the Havens Wright Center for Social Justice, and the School for Workers. Her teaching involves community-based courses addressing food justice and labor rights.