Anna Haley

Dr. Anna Haley arrives at Rutgers most recently from the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Social Work, where she was an Associate Professor and from 2013-15 served as Associate Director. Previously, from 2003-9 Professor Haley was on the faculty of the University of Washington’s School of Social Work. She earned her MA (MSW) in clinical practice and Ph.D. focused on organizations and management from University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration, and B.A. in Women’s Studies from University of Michigan.

Dr. Haley's work investigates how organizations are shaped by a range of internal and external forces, and in turn shape the lives of individuals, families, and communities. Within that emphasis, she studies employers’ choices about designing, managing, and rewarding jobs, and the impacts of those choices on employment outcomes experienced by organizations and their workforces. She focuses on low-wage or “working poverty” jobs in for-profit, nonprofit, and public settings, including retail stores, restaurants, long-term care facilities, domestic violence services programs, the U.S. Postal Service, and occupations disproportionately held by vulnerable groups of workers such as women and primary or sole family caregivers. She draws on perspectives from sociology, political science and business to frame her work theoretically, and utilizes quantitative and qualitative methods.

Dr. Haley’s findings inform social work practice by identifying “upstream” strategies for changing workplaces and public employment policies to promote worker, family, and community economic and social well-being. Her work is published in varied social work and other journals (e.g., Social Service Review, Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly, Administration in Social Work, Journal of Community Practice, Work & Occupations, Industrial Relations, Harvard Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Review, and Community, Work & Family).