Jodi Sandfort

Areas of Expertise

Nonprofit management; social policy implementation; welfare, workforce, and early childhood policy

Biography

Associate Professor Sandfort's research, teaching, and practice focus on improving the implementation of social policy, particularly those policies designed to support low-income children and their families. As a result, she works with and studies the networks of public, private, and philanthropic organizations and leaders that come together to develop and deliver social programs.

Her current research and practice projects include examinations of nonprofit organizational finances, strategic philanthropic investment, and management innovation and organizational effectiveness within human service organizations. She is also a senior fellow at the Minnesota Council of Nonprofits, where she develops programming for their Leadership Development initiative.

Sandfort came to the Institute from the McKnight Foundation, where she managed a portfolio of $20 million in annual giving directed to the human service system in Minnesota. She also is the author of numerous reports for policymakers and practitioners in philanthropy, early childhood education, welfare reform, and workforce development. Her dissertation was an in-depth examination of how front-line organizations in Michigan's welfare system implemented public policy. This study was followed by research on the local implementation of welfare reform and, in another study, early childhood programs blending childcare, Head Start, and state-sponsored preschool programs. Sandfort has published articles in numerous academic journals, including the Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Nonprofit Management & Leadership, Social Services Review, Journal of Marriage and the Family, and Administration & Society. She has contributed chapters to books on public management and research methodology.

Sandfort has worked as a case manager for the AIDS Care Connection in Detroit, as a program assistant at the Children's Defense Fund in Washington, D.C., and as an assistant professor of public administration at the Maxwell School at Syracuse University. She has worked as a consultant with national and state-wide foundations, think-tanks, and other nonprofit human service organizations. She has provided leadership coaching and organizational development services to nonprofit and public organizations. Sandfort also has experience training philanthropists, mid-level public managers, nonprofit leaders, and master's-level and doctoral-level students.

Sandfort received a Ph.D. in political science and social work in 1997 from the University of Michigan. She also holds a master's degree in social work from the University of Michigan and a B.A. from Vassar College (magna cum laude). She is a member of Phi Beta Kappa. Originally from Menomonie, Wis., Sandfort lives with her husband and two sons in Minneapolis.

Curriculum Vitae (PDF)

Courses Taught

For syllabi for the current semester, view the University of Minnesota's Course Guide. For syllabi for public affairs classes for Fall 2007 or earlier, view the Humphrey Institute's course syllabi web page. Syllabi are available in alternative formats. Please send requests to Stacey Grimes, Humphrey Institute Office of the Associate Dean (grime004@umn.edu).

Go to the University of Minnesota One Stop website to apply for these and other public affairs courses.

No Fall 2009 courses.