Dr. Alan Reifman's Family Policy Course

Welcome to HDFS 535, A Family Perspective in Policymaking. In this class, we will apply ideas from human development and family studies to see how governments and other organizations can enact policies to help families.

I have been a professor of HDFS at Texas Tech University for the past 11 years, where I have twice taught a family policy course similar to our current course (although the one at Texas Tech has been at the graduate level). I also taught a summer class at UW-Madison a year ago (Family Stress and Coping).

I received my Ph.D. in psychology from the University of Michigan in 1989, so I'm a Big Ten kind of guy!

UW-Madison is one of the best places, if not the best, to have a family policy course, for two reasons. One is that it's the home of the Policy Institute for Family Impact Seminars, headed by Prof. Karen Bogenschneider (whose book we will be using). The other reason is that Madison is the capital of Wisconsin, so we'll be able to visit the capitol building and meet with a local legislator.

Today will be devoted heavily to introductory matters. Among other things, we'll start discussing the scenarios from the Polikoff book.

I hope you find the course educational and enjoyable!