Shirley, Porterfield, Ph.D.
Professor Emeritus
Shirley L. Porterfield was a Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Missouri-St. Louis. She also previously held positions at the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, the Rural Policy Research Institute, and Washington University in St. Louis. She was a research affiliate in Washington University’s Center for Social Development and a member of the program committee for the Signature Health Foundation. Dr. Porterfield taught graduate-level courses in Program Evaluation and Health Care Policy.
Dr. Porterfield, who received her Ph.D. in Agricultural and Applied Economics from the University of Wisconsin-Madison, focused her research on health policy, and work, family, and retirement issues associated with disability in children and working-age adults, with particular emphasis on issues facing lower-income families. Her articles on these and other topics can be found in journals such as Pediatrics, the American Journal of Public Health, Journal of Marriage and the Family, Children and Youth Services Review, and Health Affairs. Dr. Porterfield had received research funding from several sources, most recently the Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA).
