CSDE Trainee Spotlight: Callie Freitag
Posted: 10/26/2020 (CSDE Research)
Callie Freitag is a CSDE Trainee and doctoral student in UW’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance and advised by CSDE Affiliate and Primary Research Area Chair for Wellbeing of Families and Households Heather Hill. Callie’s research focuses on how policy contexts throughout the life course influence poverty and inequality in later life. She leads “Aging Across UW – Third Thursdays”, an informal working group at UW with particular focus on aging research and the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, Freitag co-authored a report titled “Caring for Washington’s Older Adults in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Interviews with Organization Leaders About the State of Social and Healthcare Services”, along with CSDE Affiliates Scott Allard (Evans School), Clara Berridge (Social Work) and others in UW Schools of Medicine, Social Work, and Public Health. She is a recipient of the Graduate School’s UWRA Patricia Dougherty Fellowship in Aging, which she will use to work on a dissertation proposal related to poverty and material hardship in later life. Prior to starting her doctoral training, she worked as a policy analyst at the County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA), where she led advocacy efforts to establish Home Safe, a grant program to prevent homelessness among older adults. She also worked as a policy analyst on aging and long-term care issues for California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.