简介

Maria Cancian is Professor of Public Affairs and Social Work and an Affiliate and former Director of the Institute for Research on Poverty at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Her research considers the relationship between public policies and changes in marriage, fertility, employment and family well-being. Ongoing projects consider the implications of multiple partner fertility for family organization and policy, as well as the interactions of the incarceration, child welfare and child support systems. She served as Principal Investigator, with Daniel R. Meyer, for the Child Support Research Agreement and the Child Support Noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration. She was the College of Letters and Science Associate Dean for Fiscal Initiatives and Social Sciences from 2011 to 2014, when President Obama nominated her to become the Assistant Secretary for Family Support in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Her nomination is pending Senate confirmation; she currently serves as a Senior Advisor to the Secretary of DHHS. Professor Cancian has served as a W.T. Grant Foundation Distinguished Fellow in residence at the Wisconsin Department of Children and Families, a Visiting Scholar at the Russell Sage Foundation, and a Visiting Fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. She received her doctorate in Economics from the University of Michigan.