Rate My Professor Jody VanLaningham

Dr. Jody VanLaningham is an Associate Professor in the Department of Social Work at the University of Nebraska at Kearney, where she joined the faculty in 2008 and has served as Department Chair. She holds a Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, with emphases in Research Methods and Marriage and Family Studies, a Master of Science in Sociology from the same university, and a Bachelor of Arts in Sociology and Business Administration from Doane College. Prior to her appointment at UNK, Dr. VanLaningham worked for several years with the Missouri Division of Family Services, served as a statistical programmer and analyst for the Bureau of Sociological Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and taught as an instructor at both UNL and Doane College. Her expertise spans family advocacy, social work education, and graduate faculty roles within the department.

Dr. VanLaningham's primary research interests include family relationships, child abuse and neglect, and child welfare policy, with specific focus areas encompassing child, adolescent, and family well-being, child welfare services, and social work education. Notable publications co-authored by her are 'Marital Happiness, Marital Duration, and the U-Shaped Curve: Evidence from a Five-Wave Panel Study' published in Social Forces in 2001 with David R. Johnson and Paul Amato, and 'Life satisfaction, self-esteem, and personal happiness among Mexican and African Americans' in Sociological Spectrum in 1995 with Kenneth Ortega. She co-presented 'Understanding Juvenile Reentry: Examining Past Trauma, Perceived Support and Youth Opinions of Service Needs and Utilization' at the Society for Social Work and Research 25th Annual Conference in 2021. Dr. VanLaningham participated in a team awarded a $5,000 University of Nebraska grant in 2019 to incorporate global perspectives into social work curricula, revising courses such as SOWK 420 and SOWK 467 to include content on Spanish and Korean speakers in helping professions. She volunteers as a Court Appointed Special Advocate for children in foster care, serves on the Nebraska Foster Care Review Board, and is a member of the Behavioral Health Education Center of Nebraska (BHECN) Central Advisory Board. Additionally, she has chaired annual child welfare conferences at UNK aimed at addressing issues like bullying and trauma-informed care.