Ruijie (Ray) Ma, MSW (she/her), is a doctoral student at the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. She received a Bachelor's degree in Law from Central China Normal University and an MSW from the University of Georgia. Prior to her doctoral studies, Ruijie worked at the largest social work organization in central China, where she served for a government-funded initiative supporting diaspora orphans and their foster families in both urban and rural settings. She also collaborated with grassroots organizations to develop peer support programs informed by Social-Emotional Learning principles for children in migrant labor communities. In addition, she provided individual and family counseling to Asian adoptees and their transracial and intercountry families using Relational-Cultural Therapy grounded in feminist approaches.
Ruijie’s research focuses on child well-being, poverty, and structural inequality. Specifically, she examines how economic hardship, including food insecurity, housing instability, and caregivers' employment disruption, influences access to developmental and medical services for children with special health care needs (CSHCN). She also conducts policy evaluations of public assistance programs such as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), with an emphasis on understanding how safety-net interventions alleviate material hardship and support equitable service delivery for low-income households. Her broader interests include evaluating the effectiveness of community-based, family-centered interventions that promote resilience, child flourishing, and child maltreatment prevention. She also contributes to international conversations on child protection by advocating for equitable, evidence-informed child welfare reforms in China.
