Callie Freitag

Callie Freitag is a mixed-methods policy researcher and demographer. Her research interests are in poverty and social policy, focusing on older adults and people with disabilities. In fall 2024, Callie will join the University of Wisconsin-Madison Sandra Rosenbaum School of Social Work as an Assistant Professor.

Callie's dissertation, Understanding and Addressing the Persistence of Poverty in Later Life, explores why later-life poverty persists in the US despite a well-developed safety net for older adults. She takes a mixed-methods approach in a three-paper dissertation, answering her research questions with data from state agencies, surveys, and qualitative interviews. Callie's dissertation work has been awarded over $50,000 in grants and fellowships, including the University of Washington Graduate School Presidential Dissertation Fellowship. She is currently an Extramural Mentored Fellow with the Retirement and Disability Research Center at University Wisconsin-Madison.

Prior to the program in 2018, Callie spent three years as policy analyst in Sacramento, California, most recently for the County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA). At CWDA, Callie led the advocacy efforts to establish Home Safe, a grant program to prevent homelessness among older adults who have experienced abuse and neglect. Callie began her career in the budget office of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services in Washington, D.C.