The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work is pleased to welcome Maxine Eichner as the guest speaker for the 2026 annual Bobby Boyd Leadership Lecture Series on April 7, 2026.

Eichner’s lecture examines how the United States came to expect so much of families with so little public support, and how this gap has led overwhelming numbers of poor and disproportionately Black families to be trapped in the nation’s child welfare system. She traces how policy has come to emphasize family responsibility without parallel investment in the conditions that make children’s welfare truly possible, while calling to build systems that meet families earlier and to align policy with what children and families need to flourish.

Eichner is the Graham Kenan Distinguished Professor of Law at UNC School of Law. She is both a lawyer and political scientist. She writes on issues of families and inequality; U.S. social welfare law and policy; and the relationship of the family, the workplace, and market forces. She is the author of The Free-Market Family: How the Market Crushed the American Dream (and How It Can Be Restored) (OUP, 2020), and The Supportive State: Families, Government, and America’s Political Ideals (OUP, 2010).

This event will be presented virtually and in person in the auditorium of the Tate-Turner-Kuralt Building on UNC’s campus. The presentation starts at 12:30 p.m. and is free and open to the public. Participants are required to register for the event. A free lunch will be held in the TTK lobby for attendees beginning at 11:30 a.m.