Amy A. Morgan
Assistant Professor, Family Science
aamorgan@umd.edu 301-405-4011Dr. Amy A. Morgan is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Family Science and core faculty in the Couple and Family Therapy master's program. Her research examines how couples and families navigate prolonged hardship, particularly experiences of separation and reunification, with a primary focus on families affected by incarceration. She is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist and AAMFT Approved Supervisor.
Department Information
- Department of Family Science
- School of Public Health
- Center for Healthy Families
- Prevention Research Center
As an Assistant Professor of Family Science, and Couple and Family Therapy, Dr. Morgan examines how couples and families navigate prolonged hardship, particularly experiences of separation and reunification, with a primary focus on families affected by incarceration. She studies how family relationships are maintained during incarceration and reshaped during community reentry, with the goal of better understanding the relational processes that promote individual, couple, and family well-being.
More broadly, Dr. Morgan's scholarship examines family relationships across the lifespan, with particular expertise in fathering, couple and family processes, and relational therapy. She employs qualitative, quantitative, and mixed-methods approaches, and collaborates closely with local organizations to conduct community-engaged research.
Dr. Morgan is a Licensed Marriage and Family Therapist in Maryland, Virginia, and Washington and an AAMFT Approved Supervisor. Her clinical work informs her research and teaching, strengthening the connection between relationship science and practice.
Dr. Morgan is also involved in policy work, having served as a statewide legislative policy leader for organizations including AAMFT and the National Council for Behavioral Health.
Licensed clinical therapist; Relationships expert; Family relationships after separation and reunification experiences, especially through parental incarceration and foster care/adoption; Family systems and fathering; Family resilience; Mental health policy
Emerging Mentor & Teaching Award, National Council for Family Relations, 2025
Doris Sands Excellence in Teaching Award, School of Public Health, 2023
2023 Editor's Choice Paper indicating a high-quality publication with a high degree of readership interest; Journal of Child and Family Studies, "Felons need not apply: The tough-on-crime era's felony welfare benefits ban and its impact on families with a formerly incarcerated parent"
Family Process Institute New Writers Fellowship Award, 2020
Motivo Clinical Supervisor of the Year Award, 2020
Top 20 Most Downloaded Article, 2019; Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, "From private practice to academia: Integrating social and political advocacy into every MFT identity"
FMSC177 BE WELL - Building Emotional Wellness through ExperientiaL Learning
FMSC340 Mental Health and Healing in Families
FMSC610 Research Methods in Family Science
FMSC651 Treatment of Emotional and Mental Disorders in Family Systems
FMSC658 Supervised Clinical Practice in Couple and Family Therapy
Ph.D., Human Development and Family Science: Marriage and Family Therapy, 2020
Virginia Tech
M.S., Human Development and Family Science: Marriage and Family Therapy, 2012
University of New Hampshire
B.A., Psychology, 2010
University of New Hampshire
Selected Publications
Molloy, S., Morgan, A. A., Optiz, L. (in press). "A fairly egalitarian relationship": A feminist critical discourse analysis of fathers' perceptions of fathering in a historical time of macro-level change. Journal of Marriage and Family. https://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.70104
Morgan, A. A., Molloy, S., Ezra, P., & Smith, T. (2025). The dad double-bind: A grounded theory analysis of fathering during COVID-19. Psychology of Men & Masculinities.
Morgan, A. A., Kosi-Huber, J., Farley, T. M., Tadros, E., & Bell, A. M. (2023). Felons need not apply: The tough-on-crime era’s felony welfare benefits ban and its impact on families with a formerly incarcerated parent. Journal of Child and Family Studies. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10826-022-02400-3.
Morgan, A. A., Fullen, M. C., & Wiley, J. (2022). A case of the tail wagging the dog: The Medicare mental health coverage gap and its impact on providers, beneficiaries, and communities. Submitted to the Journal of Mental Health Counseling Special Issue on Policies and Practice
Morgan, A. A., Arditti, J. A., Dennison, S., & Frederickson, S. (2021). Against the odds: A structural equation analysis of family resilience processes during paternal incarceration. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph182111592
Landers, A., Danes. S., Morgan, A. A., Merritt, S., & White Hawk, S. (2021). My relatives are waiting: Barriers to tribal enrollment of fostered/adopted American Indians. Journal of Marriage and Family, 83, 1373-1400. http://doi.org/10.1111/jomf.12797
Morgan, A. A., Landers, A. L., Simpson, J. E., Russon, J. M., Case Pease, J., Dolbin-MacNab, M. L., Bland, K. N., & Jackson, J. B. (2021). The transition to teletherapy in marriage and family therapy training settings during COVID-19: What do the data tell us? Journal of Marital and Family Therapy, 47(2), 320-341.
Morgan, A. A., Arditti, J. A., Spiers, S., Buechner-Maxwell, V, & Shivy, V. (2020). “Came for the horses, stayed for the men”: A Mixed Methods Analysis of Staff, Community, and Reentrant Perceptions of a Prison Equine Program (PEP). Journal of Offender Rehabilitation, 59, 156-176.
Arditti, J. A. , Morgan, A. A., Spiers, S., Buechner-Maxwell, V., & Shivy, V. (2020). Perceptions of rehabilitative change among incarcerated persons enrolled in a prison-equine program (PEP): Implications for Reentry into Family and Community Life. Journal of Qualitative Criminal Justice & Criminology, 8(2), 1-30.