Research Expertise

• Nutrition

• Child hunger

• Food insecurity

Background

Dr. Maryah Stella Fram joined the faculty of the College of Social Work in 2003 as an assistant professor and was promoted to associate professor in 2009. She was named College of Social Work Educator of the Year in 2014 and 2015 and currently serves as the PhD Program Coordinator. Dr. Fram is also an Affiliated Scholar of the Nutrition Consortium at the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health. 

Dr. Fram’s scholarship focuses on child development; parent/child relationship; child hunger and food insecurity; and early childhood education and care.  Grounded in her practice background in early childhood education, childhood mental health, and early intervention, her program of research centers on informing programs and policies to promote the wellbeing of children and families living in poverty.  Her research has been funded by the USDA, the University of Kentucky Center for Poverty Research, and the Institute for Research on Poverty, and she publishes in journals such as  Advances in Nutrition, The American Journal of Preventive Medicine, Early Childhood Research Quarterly, and The Journal of Nutrition.  Dr. Fram is currently involved in projects on improving global monitoring of child food insecurity; understanding the interplay of maternal mental health and food insecurity; and examining the relationships between family functioning, food security, and early childhood development.  In recent years she has served as a panelist for the Rural Child Poverty Nutrition Center, and co-written a monograph on measuring child food insecurity for the Food and Agricultural Organization of the United Nations. She loves her work supporting and mentoring students as PhD Program Coordinator, and teaches across both MSW and PhD programs, with particular foci on social welfare theory, policy, and the translation of these into effective and impactful social work practice.   

Fram received her MSW and Ph.D. from the University of Washington School of Social Work and is a Licensed Master Social Worker in South Carolina.