Melanie Sage, PhD

My career has turned many corners, allowing me to approach the integration of technology and social work from multiple vantage points. In academia, I spent 12 years as a tenure-track professor, exploring the theoretical foundations of digital social work practice, launching an online degree program as the program director, studying the impact of technology on adolescents with environmental vulnerabilities, and researching the possibilities of AI to aid in ethical decision-making in child welfare. This scholarly lens was complemented by an stint at Meta, where I worked on improving equity and ethical design for Facebook and Instagram.

I started my journey in social work as a child welfare worker, and then had a variety of other practice roles: in hospital psychiatric work, the Veterans Administration, and in private practice. Each role has strengthened my ability to apply insights to real-world challenges. I’ve not only studied technology’s evolution within our field, but actively helped shape its responsible adoption. From instructing the next generation to advising a tech titan, I’ve been dedicated to ensuring new tools enhance rather than compromise social work’s core mission.

Today, my time is spent consulting organizations, training practitioners, developing an innovative app, and envisioning where our profession’s digital transformation will lead next. With experience spanning theory and application, I’m uniquely positioned to guide social work’s ethical embrace of technologies that can profoundly impact lives and communities worldwide. I look forward to talking about how we might map a new journey together.