Wanja Ogongi, PhD

Wanja Ogongi currently serves as Assistant Professor of Social Work at Millersville University, where she teaches human behavior and social environment, social work practice, and social science research. Her areas of interest include child welfare policy in the US and globally, the effects of social welfare policy, and issues affecting the African diaspora in the US.

Wanja has worked as a Clinical Social Worker at St. Francis Hospital in Wilmington, Greater Baltimore Medical Center, and St. Christopher Hospital for Children. As a Stoneleigh Emerging Leader Fellow at Community Legal Services of Philadelphia from 2009-2010, Wanja conducted research on Philadelphia’s disproportionately high rate of children returning to foster care within 12 months of reunification with their birth families. She also co-founded the Ahadi Zetu Foundation, a nonprofit that provides educational scholarships to children in Kenya.

Wanja Ogongi holds a BA in anthropology from the University of Nairobi, an MSW from West Chester University of Pennsylvania, and a PhD in social work from Widener University.