Judi Bartfeld

Judi Bartfeld is a Professor of Consumer Science at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Human Ecology and serves as Faculty Liaison for the Division of Extension. Her research focuses on food insecurity, food assistance policies, and post-divorce economic well-being of families. She holds affiliations with the Health and Well-Being Institute, Institute for Research on Poverty, Center for Financial Security, and Applied Population Lab.

She earned her PhD in Social Welfare from UW-Madison and a BS in Psychology from Johns Hopkins University. Her work bridges academic research and public policy, emphasizing actionable insights for non-academic audiences through Extension collaborations.

Her research interests include child support systems, shared custody arrangements’ economic impacts, and state-level policies affecting food security. Notable contributions include evaluating the Community Eligibility Provision’s effects on school attendance and analyzing cross-national differences in post-separation family dynamics between Wisconsin and Finland.

Bartfeld has published over 50 peer-reviewed articles and policy reports, including the 2015 book SNAP Matters. Her leadership of the RIDGE program (2014 USDA Honor Award) fostered national collaboration among food security researchers. Ongoing projects examine neighborhood effects on child support compliance and the role of financial shocks in household food insecurity.

Grants include collaborations on child placement economics and child support policy analyses. Her Extension work produces county-level food security reports for Wisconsin’s 72 counties, translating complex data into practical resources for policymakers and community organizations.