Julia Henly is Professor and Deputy Dean for Faculty Development and Research in the University of Chicago Crown Family School of Social Work, Policy, and Practice. Henly’s scholarship aims to advance understanding of the economic and caregiving strategies of low-income families to inform the design and effectiveness of work-family policies and public benefits, especially child care policy. Her ongoing projects are funded by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Administration for Children and Families, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, and WorkRise. Across these projects, she and colleagues investigate equity in child care subsidy access and the effects of recent child care subsidy policy changes on program demographics and participation duration; the implications of the COVID-19 pandemic on centers and home-based child care programs; child care financing mechanisms and their relationship to equitable access; and the prevalence and consequences of precarious work schedules on workers and their children. Henly’s research includes experimental, quasi-experimental and participatory methods including collaboration with state and local government agencies and community organizations. Her studies involve the analysis of administrative, survey and qualitative interview data. 

Henly is a Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare and the Society for Social Work and Research. She has served as a Fellow in the Interdisciplinary Research Leadership program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (2016-2018) and as a Distinguished Fellow of the William T. Grant Foundation (2016-2017). Henly received her B.A. with honors from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and her M.S.W. and Ph.D. from the University of Michigan. Her scholarship is published in peer-reviewed journals such as Social Service Review, Journal of Marriage and Family, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, Social Work Research, Children and Youth Services Review, and Journal of Urban Affairs, and also appears in numerous edited-book volumes, policy briefs and reports.

Learn more about Professor Henly here.