Colleen Heflin

Colleen Heflin will work on a project examining how administrative burdens influence participation in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). Helfin will examine whether the physical presence requirements for WIC enrollment support, rather than burden, program participants. She will draw on data on program uptake during the COVID-19 pandemic, during which the federal government allowed localities to waive physical presence requirements in order to minimize the risk of COVID-19 spread. She will compare WIC enrollment and retention, as well as enrollment in other programs, in counties that chose to adopt or to not adopt waivers.