College of Health Sciences and Human Services

Department of Social Work

Literature Review Paper Results in Conference Presentation on Food Insecurity

MSW candidate Estefania Rodriguez attended the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management’s 2019 DC Regional Student Conference; where she had the opportunity to present her Master’s capstone project titled: Understanding Food Insecurity in Higher Education: A Review of the Literature.

This conference was a great opportunity for students from a variety of disciplines to present their research, connect with other policy researchers and peers. The conference featured more than 30 panel sessions and poster presentations as well as chances to participate in professional development and networking. Estefania presented with two MSW candidates from Columbia University and one Economics PhD candidate from the University of Mexico.

Each student had a unique area of focus for their research but all held the overarching theme of encouraging policy changes to decrease our nation’s rate of food insecurity. All panelists were given an opportunity to speak about their research and then came together to take questions and feedback from observers. Overall every attendee whether presenting research or not, left the conference with a renewed passion for policy oriented research aimed at problem solving in our complicated world.