Melissa Fry

Dr. Fry is a public and applied sociologist. She focuses on community development through applied work serving area nonprofit organizations, government entities, and coalitions. Her work includes issue based research on the IU Southeast service region, needs assessments, strategic planning, and program evaluation. Before joining the IUS faculty, she taught at Auburn University and spent four years as a research and policy associate at the Mountain Association for Community Economic Development in Berea, KY. Dr. Fry’s career began with a dissertation on public policy implementation in community based services for the aging and the mentally ill.

Dr. Fry has explored the intersection of political institutions, policy and inequality through work on poverty, homelessness, veterans, education, charter schools, childcare, violence against women, supports for the working poor, payday lending, state tax and budget issues, sustainable development, higher education affordability and the fiscal impact of the coal industry in Kentucky.

Applied Sociology, Public Policy, Political Institutions, Community, Social Inequality with specialization in Race, Class, and Gender, Complex Organizations, Nonprofit Community Services, and Sustainability and Regeneration Studies.