Nancy McCarthy Snyder has been named director of the Hugo Wall School of Urban and Public Affairs at Wichita State University.

Snyder is a specialist in state and local government finance and social welfare policy. Her research interests focus on the financing and effectiveness of education and human services, particularly issues of contracting and the privatization of child welfare in Kansas.

She joined the Hugo Wall faculty in 1977 and served as WSU’s director of institutional research from 1998-2000 and associate vice president for Academic Affairs and Research from 2004-2007.

Snyder earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in mathematics from Clarke College, and a Master of Science and doctoral degree in economics from Southern Illinois University-Carbondale.

Snyder succeeds interim director John Wong, who has accepted a new position as professor and chair of the department of urban and public leadership at the University of North Texas at Dallas.