Sandra L. Hofferth

Honored by:Madalyn Hofferth
Brick location:F:19  map

We would like to honor our daughter Sandra Lynn Hofferth who has been involved with women and family issues throughout her career. Her father graduated from Iowa State in 1950 with a Ph.D. in Chemistry. Sandra was born in Chicago in 1945 and began her formal education in the Child Development Center at Iowa State in 1948. While at Iowa State she appeared in numerous publications put out by Miss Sunderlin.

She graduated from Manheim Township Lancaster Co. High School first in a class of 187. A graduate of Swarthmore College she joined the Peace Corps and worked in Santiago, Chile for two years before returning to college at the University of North Carolina where she obtained a Ph.D. in Sociology. She joined the Urban Institute in Washington D.C. and published several books. She also did research for the National Institute of Health. In 1994 she joined the staff at the University of Michigan at Ann Arbor as a Research Scientist. -------------------------------------------------------

Dr. Hofferth is Research Scientist at the Institute for Social Research Adjunct Professor of Sociology and Research Associate Population Studies Center at the University of Michigan. She is Co-Director (with Frank Stafford) of the Michigan Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Dr. Hofferth received her Ph.D in Sociology from the University of North Carolina in 1976. From 1983 to 1988 Hofferth served as Health Scientist Administrator in the National Institute of Child Health and Human Development. From 1977 to 1983 and from 1988 to 1994 she was Research Associate and then Senior Research Associate at the Urban Institute in Washington D.C. Hofferth has researched children youth and family policy issues for 15 years. She recently completed the analysis of two national studies of child care. The first The National Child Care Survey 1990 describes the early education and care arrangements used by parents for their children under age 13. The second A Profile of Child Care Settings: Early Education and Care in 1990 describes early childhood programs from a program perspective. A 1992 publication in the Journal of Human Resources "Price Quality and Income in Child Care Choice" examines the relative importance of different characteristics of care in parental choice of child care arrangements. Hofferth was awarded the 1991-92 Jensen Lectureship jointly sponsored by the American Sociological Association and Duke University for research contributing to the goal of providing social action with a more rational grounding in tested knowledge.

Besides her work on early education Hofferth has reviewed and conducted research on a variety of family issues such as kin networks children's living arrangements maternal employment fertility decisions and the consequences of adolescent pregnancy and childbearing. She has also been active in the policy arena. She testified three times on the Hill during the (late 1980s) Congressional debates on child care legislation. She has published 8 books monographs and edited volumes and over 30 articles and book chapters.

12/10/94