Kelly Marie Ward, PhD

Position title: Assistant Professor of Gender and Women's Studies and Sociology

Phone: Engagement Hub Advisor

Personal Webpage: https://www.kellymarieward.com/

Kelly Marie Ward is an assistant professor in the Gender & Women’s Studies and Sociology departments at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. She studies the organizational features of abortion and reproductive healthcare, with an emphasis on low-status workers. She has published in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior, Contraception, Mobilization, and The Sociological Quarterly.

Kelly is a recipient of the National Abortion Federation’s Carole Joffe and Stanley Henshaw Early Achievement in Social Science Research Award and the Society for Family Planning’s Emerging Scholars Award. She also engages in diverse ways to support broader research as the Engagement Hub Advisor at UW–Madison’s Collaborative for Reproductive Equity and a co-facilitator for the Abortion Researcher Incubator at the University of California San Francisco’s Advancing New Standards in Reproductive Health.

Kelly is also a full-spectrum doula to unconditionally support the goals of pregnant people and works with community organizations focused on abortion access and birth justice.

Ward is on leave for the 2024-2025 academic year.