Fellows

Maria Cancian, PhD

Active | Inducted in 2016

Bio

Maria Cancian is a professor and former dean at the McCourt School of Public Policy at Georgetown University. Her research examines the relationship between public policy and family well-being, focusing on how policies shape family outcomes and how changes in family structure create new challenges and opportunities for policy.

She previously served as Professor of Public Affairs and Social Work at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, where she was an affiliate and Director of the Institute for Research on Poverty. Her work explores the connections between public policy and changes in marriage, fertility, employment, and family well-being. Her research includes analyses of the intersections among the incarceration, child welfare, and child support systems, as well as the implications of multiple-partner fertility for family organization and policy. She is Principal Investigator, with Daniel R. Meyer, of the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration.

Dr. Cancian was nominated by President Obama to serve as Assistant Secretary for the Administration for Children and Families (ACF). She also served as Senior Advisor to the Secretary of Health and Human Services and as Deputy Assistant Secretary for Policy at ACF. Earlier roles include Associate Dean for Social Sciences and Fiscal Initiatives at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, W. T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow in residence at the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, and Visiting Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California.

She received her PhD in Economics from the University of Michigan.

To access Dr. Cancians’ Faculty Page, click here.