Speaker

Prof. Gina Chowa
Global Social Development Innovations

Dan Sanders memorial Lecture

Biography

Dr. Gina Chowa first joined the UNC School of Social Work staff in 2008 as an assistant professor and now serves as a full professor and as Associate Dean for Global Engagement. Dr. Chowa is the founding director of Global Social Development Innovations, which launched in 2017.

Informed by more than two decades of experience and practice, Dr. Chowa conducts research at the intersection of economic security, workforce development, social protection, and financial inclusion and its impact on marginalized individuals in the Global South. She has served as a principal investigator of large-scale, cluster-randomized projects such as Siyakha and YouthSave Ghana Experiment. Additionally, Dr. Chowa piloted GSDI initiatives such as AssetsAfrica in Uganda and an innovative intervention study in Zambia called Chuma na Uchizi, dedicated to improving the health outcomes of individuals living with HIV.

Dr. Chowa’s honors include the prestigious Ruth and Philip Hettleman Prize for Artistic and Scholarly Achievement (2014), the Wallace Kuralt Early Career Distinguished Professorship (2016), and more recently, the Johnson-Howard-Adair Distinguished Professorship (2020). Her work has been published in various interdisciplinary and social work journals, including Child and Youth Services, Children and Youth Services Review, International Journal of Educational Development, Journal of Family and Economic Issues, Journal of Socio-Economics, and more.

Dr. Chowa also has faculty appointments at the Center for Social Development at Washington University in St. Louis, Mo., and the Centre for Social Development Africa at the University of Johannesburg, South Africa.