Dr. Shannon Lane
Social worker
Author
Professor
Advocate for voting rights and political justice
Dr. Shannon R. Lane
Faculty member at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work, Yeshiva University
Author of Political Social Work: Using Power to Create Social Change with Suzanne Pritzker
Author of Social Welfare Policy in a Changing World with Elizabeth Palley and Corey Shdaimah, winner of a 2022 Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) Most Promising New Textbook Award.
Researcher with the Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work, University of Connecticut
Faculty member, University of Michigan School of Social Work Online Certificate in Political Social Work
Deputy Registrar of Voters, Bethany, Connecticut
Member, Scholars Strategy Network
Books
Social Welfare Policy in a Changing World
This book is an approachable and student-friendly text that links policy and practice and employs a critical analytic lens to U.S. social welfare policy. With particular attention to disparities based on class, race/ethnicity, ability, sexual orientation and gender, authors Shannon R. Lane, Elizabeth S. Palley, and Corey S. Shdaimah assess the impact of policies at the micro, meso, and macro levels.
Social Welfare Policy in a Changing World received the 2022 Textbook and Academic Authors Association award for Most Promising New Textbook.
Political Social Work: Using Power to Create Social Change
This book focuses on core skills social workers need to practice in the political sphere and is tied to the 2015 Council on Social Work Education Educational Policy and Accreditation Standards. The book is designed for advanced MSW courses that prepare students for macro practice positions and practitioners looking for more information. It includes interactive activities to help students engage with power and conflict.
Individual chapters of this widely used book have been downloaded more than 1.2 million times.
Dr. Lane & Dr. Pritzker discuss the book with Dr. Patrick Meehan on the podcast Social Work & Politics
Niva Golan-Nadir’s review of Political Social Work in the Journal of Social Work
Online Resources related to the book
Political Social Work: Using Power to Create Social Change
Dr. Lane’s presentation at the University of Michigan School of Social Work in 2020 was coordinated by Professor Justin Hodge and supported by the University of Michigan Center for Research on Learning and Teaching's Instructional Development Fund and CEW + Frances and Sydney Lewis Visiting Leaders Fund.
Voting is Social Work: Researchers Speak Out
This 2022 presentation through Open Classroom at Washington University in St. Louis was presented in partnership with the Association for Community Organization and Social Action (ACOSA), Center for Social Development, Clark-Fox Policy Institute, Congressional Research Institute for Social Work and Policy (CRISP), Influencing Social Policy (ISP), Network for Social Work Management, Social Justice Initiative, Bryn Mawr College, Special Commission to Advance Macro Practice in Social Work, and Voting is Social Work. Dr. Lane and Dr. Sandler’s presentation starts about one hour in. Thank you to Gary Parker, Laura McConnell, and the teams at Influencing Social Policy and the Brown School for making this event possible.
PhD, University of Connecticut
MSW, University of Michigan
BA, The George Washington University
Current research
Political Justice Fellowship: Grant funded program to increase the capacity of community agencies and skills of individual students and social workers to engage with the political system and fight political injustice.
CJSW Project: Grant funded research with WSSW PhD students regarding the ways social workers understand voting rights for people with criminal justice involvement
Alice Paul Project: Grant funded archival research into the life of social worker and women’s rights activist Alice Paul
Humphreys Institute: Coordinating research into political social work including outcomes of the Campaign School for Social Workers and Voter Engagement Project
Social Work Education: Survey of social work academics and their path to leadership; Survey of social work academics and their experiences with incivility
Political Social Work: Describing the experiences of social workers who served as elections officials during the 2020-2021 elections; Case studies of social workers’ responses to COVID-19 and racial injustice
I began my career working for the United States Senate. I worked for Senate Democratic Leader Tom Daschle while still an undergraduate at the George Washington University. I received my MSW from the University of Michigan and returned to Capitol Hill to work for Senators Daschle, Pryor, and Nelson. In 2004, I moved to Connecticut to start a career in social work academia, research, and advocacy. I received my PhD from the University of Connecticut School of Social Work in 2009, and my dissertation examined the experiences of social workers who ran for political office.
Since 2004, I have been affiliated with the Nancy A. Humphreys Institute for Political Social Work at the University of Connecticut School of Social Work. With that team, I help to coordinate and evaluate the Campaign School for Social Workers, a two-day training that has trained more than 2,300 social work students and professionals from around the country to run for political office and hold leadership positions in political settings.
I teach a variety of topics including policy, community and macro practice, and research. Today, I am an Associate Professor at the Wurzweiler School of Social Work and the Associate Director of Research for the WSSW PhD Program.
I serve on the editorial board of the Journal of Social Policy and Research and as the Deputy Registrar of Voters in Bethany, Connecticut. I am a past member of CSWE’s Council on the Role and Status of Women in Social Work Education. I helped to create the first ever Macro United Conference, bringing together social work macro practitioners, researchers, academics, and students from all macro methods, in 2021.