
Melody K. Waring
Ph.D. Student

Melody K. Waring
Ph.D. Student
About
Melody received her A.M. from the School of Social Service Administration at the University of Chicago in 2015. Her social work field placements included a workforce development policy and advocacy group, and supporting survivors of domestic violence navigate the order of protection process at the Cook County Courthouse.
Prior to starting her graduate education, Melody worked for seven years with nonprofits on the West Coast and in Central America, working both in international development and directly with refugees in the Seattle area. She developed expertise as a grant writer, program evaluator, and administrator. Melody also held a unique apprenticeship in Seattle to train afterschool service providers in racial equity and diversity, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. These professional experiences led her to social work research, and she retains a clear focus on training and equipping front-line staff.
Melody has taught a required class introducing MSW students to the field of social work. In 2018 and 2019, Melody taught the Basic Statistics for Social Work class required for MSW students in the part-time program.
Interests:
poverty; social policy; labor force participation; caregiving; family formation; gender and women’s studies; quantitative research; feminist research methods
Publications
Use of child support enforcement actions and their relationship to payments.
Daniel R. Meyer, Maria Cancian, Melody K. Waring
Children and Youth Services Review, 2020 Jan, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104672
Welfare, work, and single mothers: The Great Recession and income packaging strategies.
Melody K. Waring, Daniel R. Meyer
Children and Youth Services Review, 2020 Jan, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.childyouth.2019.104585
The Stats Requirement: Statistical Thinking as Social Work
Melody K. Waring
Journal of Social Work Education, DOI: 10.1080/10437797.2019.1662864, 2019
Are U.S. congregations patching the social safety net? Trends from 1998 to 2012.
E. J. Warren, M. K. Waring, D. R. Meyer
Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare, vol. 46(3), 2019 Sep, pp. 39-62
M. E. Parker, E. Mosites, K. Reider, N. Ndayishimiye, M. Waring, G. Nyandimbane, D. Masumbuko, L. Ndikuriyo, D. Matthias
Food and Nutrition Bulletin, vol. 36(4), 2015 Oct 30, pp. 481-492
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Projects
Caring for Aging Parents: Stratified Effects on Labor Force Participation
Dissertation fellowship, funded by the Center for Retirement Research at Boston College.
Child Support noncustodial Parent Employment Demonstration (CSPED)
Harmonized disparate measures from child support administrative data of eight demonstration states in randomized control trial with more than 10,000 participants. Collaborated on analysis and reporting.
Use of enforcement actions and their relationship to payments
Prepared reports to the state of Wisconsin and papers for peer-review related to child support and social policies. Conducted original analyses and literature reviews. Assisted with preparing analyses for dissemination.
Economic Status of PSEs and Low-Tier Career Employees in the USPS
Conducted primary analysis on survey data from 771 respondents in the American Postal Workers Union (APWU) on poverty, public assistance, and work conditions.
Courses
SW640: Social Work with Ethnic and Racial Groups
Fall 2019, TA
Teaching Assistant (two discussion sections) in this BSW course that prepares students for generalist social work practice in a multicultural society. It discusses African Americans, Hispanics, American Indians, and Asian Americans, and implications ar...
SW673: Basic Statistics for Social Workers
Summer 2019
Co-instructor for nine-week class, 12 part-time students in MSW program. Surveyed central tendencies, measures of variance, basics of probability theory, t-tests, chi-square tests, correlation, and bivariate regression analysis.
SW673: Basic Statistics for Social Workers
Summer 2018
Instructor for eight-week class, 19 part-time students in the MSW program. Surveyed central tendencies, measures of variance, basics of probability theory, t-tests, chi-square tests, correlation, and bivariate regression analysis.
SW605: The Field of Social Work
Fall 2016
Instructor for required class for MSW students, with more than 50 participants. Provided an introduction to the nature, purpose, function, and organizational content of the social work profession.
Posts
Here's the bio for my TA award! Such an honor to be selected among UW-Madison's legion of TAs. (Grateful to my amazing PhD Program Director, Kristi Slack, who nominated me!!) (Link)
Had another excellent experience at the annual SSWR (Society for Social Work and Research) conference! This year it was held in Washington, DC. I was on a pretty amazing panel on caregiving--the other two presenters both were sharing results of origina... (Link)
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Great breaking news! I just found out that the University of WI-Madison Campus-Wide TA Award Committee chose me to receive a 2019 Teaching Assistant Award! They'll be adding a post about it to the UW Madison website soon -- in the meantime, enjoy this ... (Link)
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Had such a great time presenting preliminary findings from my second chapter at the 2019 PSID Annual Users Conference. Highly recommend this conference -- so many opportunities for feedback with folks in the PSID trenches! The paper I presented foll... (Link)
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Great first day of presenting my dissertation poster at the 21st Annual Social Security Administration Research Consortium Meeting! My poster is based on my paper "Women, Work, and Caring for Aging Parents: Modelling Difference by Education in the Pane... (Link)
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