Jack Ladinsky was born in St. Louis, Missouri, on May 8, 1932. He earned a B.S. (1954) and an M.A. (1957) from the University of Missouri-Columbia, where he worked as a research assistant in sociology and rural sociology. While pursuing his Ph.D. at the University of Michigan (completed in 1962) Ladinsky worked as a research assistant on a labor-leisure project in 1960. At this time he also became active in the Ann Arbor Direct Action Committee (AADAC) which organized lunch-counter boycotts and pickets.
On July 16, 1961 he married Judith (née Byers) Yesner, with whom he had two children, Morissa and Mark. Judith Ladinsky was born in Los Angeles on June 16, 1938 to Irving and Eva Byers. Little is known about her early life, but pre-1961 materials within the Ladinsky Papers refer to her as Mrs. Robert Yesner.
In 1961 Jack Ladinsky joined the faculty of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and served as director for the Center for Law and Behavior Science from 1968-1970. Since 1972 he has been in health care, processes of deviant behavior and sociology and justice, contemporary issues in health care, and he has researched social change, the legal profession, and criminal justice administration, especially the courts. In addition, he has acted as director for both the undergraduate major in Behavioral Science and Law and the Criminal Justice Certificate Program and assistant director for the Institute for Research on Poverty. He has been a member of the Society for the Study of Social Issues, Law and Society Association, Population Association of America, and Industrial Relations Research Association. Most recently he was named chair of the ad hoc Committee on Academic and Social Issues in the Student Environment.
Judith Ladinsky received her B.S. from the University of Michigan in 1960. There she worked as a research associate in the Department of Anatomy and Surgery from 1956 to 1960. At Ann Arbor she was also involved in civil rights activities coordinated by the AADAC for which she served as secretary. Following her 1961 marriage and move to Madison, Wisconsin she earned an M.S. (1964) and a Ph.D in reproductive physiology. She has worked as a project associate in the Department of Gynecology/Obstetrics at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Medical School (1961 to 1968), an instructor with the Department of Preventive Medicine (1968-1969), and as an assistant professor (1969-1975). Since 1975 she has been an associate professor. Her work in developing rural health systems led her to become health consultant to the U.S. Committee for Scientific Cooperation with Vietnam in 1980. In 1984 she became head of the program. Judith Ladinsky's professional affiliations include the National Association of Community Health Centers, the National Association of Public Health Policy, the National Council of Teachers of Preventive Medicine, and the American Society of Cell Biology. A founder of the Group Health Cooperative, she acts as director of the UW Medical School's Office of International Health and is currently serving on the Governing Council of the American Public Health Association.
