Colleen Heflin is a professor in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University and a UKCPR research affiliate. Her work focuses on welfare policy, poverty, and the well-being of vulnerable populations. Heflin’s article on “Food pantry assistance and the Great Recession” appears in the 2019 (Vol. 14) Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition. The research documents trends in food pantry assistance during the 2007-09 recession. One trend the research found is that older Americans have increased their use of food pantries.In 2019, she also co-authored “SNAP benefits and childhood asthma” in the journal Social Science & Medicine (Vol. 220). The work examines whether poor families are making choices between purchase of food or asthma medication for children. Heflin’s research finds that increased SNAP benefits are associated with a reduction in probability of an asthma-related ER visit.
Her research on SNAP's link to pediatric asthma was also highlighted in MD Magazine.