Steven G. Anderson
Associate Professor
Office location: Suite 2000
Phone number: 217-244-5242
Email: sandersn@illinois.edu
Educational Background
Professor Anderson received his B.S.W. and M.S.W. degrees from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 1974 and 1975, respectively. He later earned M.A. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from the University of Michigan. Professor Anderson enjoyed a long community practice career in public legislative and executive settings before returning to academia. He served for ten years as a fiscal analyst and then Associate Director for Human Services at the Michigan House Fiscal Agency, which serves as the budget development and monitoring arm of the Michigan House of Representatives. He then joined the School of Social Work faculty in 1998, and became director of the Ph.D. Program in 2006. He also serves as chair of the School's new Advocacy, Leadership, and Social Change MSW specialization.
He has conducted many research projects evaluating the impact of welfare reform programs, as well as the implementation of childcare, financial management training, and other support services intended to improve the well-being of low-income families. He has published extensively on these topics in leading social work and interdisciplinary research journals.
Research and Practice Interests
Research interests pertain to poverty and inequality issues, and more broadly to the access of disadvantaged groups to societal benefits, both in the U.S. and internationally; and community practice interests and enhancing the training of MSW community practitioners who develop programs and policies on behalf of low-income families. Additional focus is on training students interested in working in public legislative settings.
Current Research
Dr. Anderson's current research involves evaluating the access of low-income families to support services, such as health care and childcare, that contribute to the well-being of low-income families. He is also interested in developing and testing policy and program strategies for encouraging such access. For example, he and colleagues have been evaluating financial management training programs as a financial empowerment strategy for low-income adults, and currently are extending this work with immigrant populations. In addition, Dr. Anderson has begun exploring the efficacy of civic engagement initiatives targeted at improving the participation and functioning of low-income persons in their communities.
Recent Publications
Zhan, M., Anderson. S., & Scott, J. (in press). Banking Knowledge and Attitudes of Immigrants: Effects of a Financial Education Program. Social Development Issues.
Conferences
Anderson, S., Liu, M., and Scott. J. (2008) Parental choice of license-exempt caregivers in child care subsidy programs: An analysis of decision-making reasons. 12th Annual Conference of the Society for Social Work Research.
Anderson, S. (2008). Social entrepreneurship as a social change strategy: An introduction and assessment. Invited presentation to researchers at the China Center for Comparative Politics and Economics, Beijing, China.
Anderson, S. (2008). Introducing social entrepreneurship as a development and change approach for social service students. World University Network (WUN) Hangzhou Enterprise Conference, Hangzhou, China.