Elaine Waxman

Recipient of the 2024 Edith Abbott Award

Elaine Waxman is a senior fellow in the Income and Benefits Policy Center at the Urban Institute and a nationally recognized expert in food insecurity in the US. Her expertise includes food access, federal nutrition programs, the charitable food network, social determinants of health and broader issues affecting families with low income. Waxman also co-leads the Institute’s Disability Equity Policy Initiative. Before joining the Urban Institute in 2015, Waxman served as the Vice President of Research and Nutrition at Feeding America, where she oversaw the Hunger in America study, which collected data from 60,000 clients and 30,000 agencies. She has co-authored numerous publications, including an article on SNAP benefit adequacy in the Agricultural and Resource Economics Review, which was named the journal’s Best Paper in 2019.

She received her MPP and PhD from the University of Chicago, where she is a lecturer at the Crown School of
Social Work, Policy and Practice. Since 2020, Waxman has offered a course on food insecurity and food policy in the US, which provides both undergraduate and graduate students the opportunity to participate in research collaborations with advocacy organizations and service providers working in the food justice space