• Professor, George Warren Brown School of Social Work
• Director, Center for Social Development

Michael Sherraden

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• A.B. in Social Relations at Harvard University
• M.S.W. in Social Welfare Administration and Organizational Behavior at University of Michigan
• Ph.D. in Social Welfare Administration and Organizational Behavior at University of Michigan

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More than 1,000 Okla. babies receive $1,000 for college savings Okla. State Treasurer and Washington University in St. Louis partner through new study on children's savings accounts June 3, 2008 -- More than 1,000 Oklahoma babies are receiving a $1,000 jumpstart on saving for college thanks to SEED for Oklahoma Kids (SEED OK), a seven-year study designed to determine the economic and educational impact of "seeding" a college savings account for children at birth. SEED OK, announced June 3 by Governor Brad Henry and State Treasurer Scott Meacham, is a collaboration between the Oklahoma State Treasurer and the Center for Social Development (CSD) at the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis.

Asset building is the key Ford Foundation grant helps the Center for Social Development invest in the poor Nov. 28, 2005 -- At the Center for Social Development (CSD) in the George Warren Brown School of Social Work, Michael Sherraden, Ph.D., and his faculty colleagues, staff, and graduate students are dedicating themselves to addressing the root causes of poverty and finding solutions. To this end, CSD has found a partner in the Ford Foundation, a philanthropic organization whose goals include asset building to create better societies.

Poverty plays a role High rate of depression found in African-American women at risk for type 2 diabetes Dec. 19, 2003 -- Photo by David Kilper/WUSTL Photo Wendy F. Auslander, Ph.D. (left), works with St. Louis-area peer counselors in the "Eat Well, Live Well" program she pioneered with colleagues at the School of Medicine. As the cases of type 2 diabetes in African-American women increase at an epidemic rate, researchers are examining risk factors involved with this disease in order to create programs that will hopefully slow this growing problem. According to a recent study at the George Warren Brown (GWB) School of Social Work at Washington University in St. Louis, African-American women at risk for type 2 diabetes experience long periods of depression due, in part, to a lack of economic and social resources. "At the beginning of our study, 40 percent of our sample of African-American women at risk for type 2 diabetes reported clinically significant depression," says Wendy Auslander, Ph.D., professor at GWB and co-author of the study. "Unlike their nondepressed peers, these women reported fewer economic assets and greater economic distress. Issues such as unemployment, low self-esteem and a low appraisal of their economic situation contributed to their depression."

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New incentive to save for college The Christian Science Monitor and 8 others June 30, 2008 -- Anything that helps college savings accumulate is positive, but higher interest rates may not be the most effective incentive, says Michael Sherraden, director of the Center for Social Development at WUSTL's social work school. The Center's latest project is SEED for Oklahoma Kids.

In Oklahoma and Maine, Babies Get Funds for College Savings Plans U.S. News & World Report online blog June 13, 2008 -- Education blog on programs in Oklahoma and Maine to provide college savings accounts to newborns. WUSTL social work professor Michael Sherraden talks about the effort in Oklahoma.

IDA program to help lower income families save for buying a home, education CBS News June 27, 2006 -- The philosophy of Individual Development Accounts, originally developed by a professor at Washington University, is that the best way to get ahead is to save money and acquire assets. IDAs are a first for the country's poor. Incentives similar to the tax breaks, or mortgage deductions middle and upper-class Americans have benefitted from for years.

In 1991 Sherraden authored Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy, which proposed matched savings for the poor in Individual Development Accounts (IDAs). The American Dream Demonstration (ADD) at CSD is a large, eight-year, multi-method research project to test IDAs. IDAs have been adopted in federal legislation and in more than 40 states. In Alternatives to Social Security: An International Inquiry, 1997, edited with James Midgley, Sherraden points out that asset-based policy is expanding in many countries, but typically does not include the poor. Research results from ADD were instrumental in the design of Universal Savings Accounts (USAs), a 1999 proposal by President Clinton that would enable all working people to build assets. Sherraden's work on assets has influenced policy development in the United Kingdom, Taiwan, Canada, and other countries.

Washington University honored Professor Sherraden with the 1994 Distinguished Faculty Award, and the George Warren Brown School of Social Work presented him with the Distinguished Faculty Award in 1999. In 1992-93 he was a Fulbright Research Fellow at the National University of Singapore, and he has been a visiting professor of the National University of Mexico. In 2001 he was awarded the Flynn Prize, given to a scholar who has connected social work research to other fields or new contexts, creating demonstrable change in social well-being.

Selected Publications

* Sherraden, M. (2001). Asset Building Policy and Programs for the Poor, Assets for the Poor: The Benefits of Spreading Asset Ownership. Shapiro, T. & Wolff, E. (Eds.). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

* Morrow-Howell, N.; Hinterlong, J.; & Sherraden, M. (Eds.) (2001). Productive Aging: Concepts and Controversies. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press.

* Sherraden, M. (2000). Asking Questions Well: The Use of Theory in Applied Social Research, Proceedings of Twelfth Annual Symposium on Doctoral Dissertations in Social Work. Columbus: Ohio State University, College of Social Work.

* Sherraden, M. (2000). From Research to Policy: Lessons from Individual Development Accounts, The Colston Warne Lecture, Journal of Consumer Affairs 34(2), 159-181.

* Beverly, S. & Sherraden, M. (1999). Institutional Determinants of Savings: Implications for Low-Income Households, Journal of Socio-Economics 28: 457-473.

* Sherraden, M. (1998). Community Development and Policy Innovation in a Time of Transition, The John Roatch Global Lecture in Social Policy and Practice. Tempe, AZ: University of Arizona.

* Midgley, J. & Sherraden, M. (Eds.) (1997). Alternatives to Social Security: An International Inquiry. Westport, CT: Auburn House.

* Sherraden, M. (1992). Community-Based Youth Services in International Perspective. Washington: Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development and W.T. Grant Foundation Commission on Youth and American's Future.

* Sherraden, M. (1991). Assets and the Poor: A New American Welfare Policy. Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe.

* Eberly, D. & Sherraden, M. (Eds.) (1990). The Moral Equivalent of War? A Study of Non-Military Service in Nine Nations. New York: Greenwood Press.

* Sherraden, M. & Eberly, D. (Eds.) (1982). National Service: Social, Economic, and Military Impacts. New York: Pergamon Press.