Creating a Community of Scholars from Across the University of Michigan
Leadership
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Vicki A. Freedman , Director
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Epidemiology, Yale University
Freedman F-JInterests
Dr. Freedman has published extensively on the topics of population aging, disability trends and long-term care and has investigated the connections among disability, time use and wellbeing in later life. She has co-led the National Health and Aging Trends Study and the National Study of Caregiving since their inception and has served as an Associate Director of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics. Through these efforts she has been instrumental in disseminating new measures to study disability and care needs of older adults.
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Helen Levy , MiCDA Enclave Director
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Research Professor, School of Public Health & Gerald R. Ford School of Public PolicyPh.D., Health Economics, Princeton University
Levy K-OInterests
Dr. Levy’s research interests include health economics, public finance and labor economics. Her most recent work explores the financial consequences of poor health for households without health insurance and the determinants of men’s and women’s occupation choices. She serves as an Associate Director of the Health and Retirement Study and directs the MiCDA enclave.
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Robert F. Schoeni , External Innovative Networks Director
Research Professor, Survey Research Center & Population Studies Center, Institute for Social Research
Professor, College of Literature, Science & the Arts & Gerald R. Ford School of Public PolicyPh.D., Economics, University of Michigan
Schoeni P-TInterests
Dr. Schoeni studies labor economics, the family, aging, and welfare policy. Recent studies include the investigation of family exchanges, changes in old-age health status and disability, the effects of welfare reform on various outcomes, the economic consequences of workplace injuries, and poverty among older women. He co-organizes MiCDA’s network on TRENDS in old-age disability. He previously served as co-director of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics.
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Affiliates
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Joelle Abramowitz
Assistant Research Scientist, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Economics, University of Washington
Abramowitz A-EInterests
Dr. Abramowitz’s research examines the effects of health policies on individuals’ major life decisions and wellbeing. She has studied health insurance and medical out-of-pocket expenditures as well as marriage and fertility. She currently co-directs the Michigan Federal Statistical Research Data Centers.
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Kristine J. Ajrouch
Adjunct Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Sociology, Wayne State University
Ajrouch A-EInterests
Dr. Ajrouch’s research focuses on aging, health, immigration and family in the United Statues and the Middle East; social networks over the life course; and Arab American identity and well-being. Currently, she is working with a multidisciplinary team of researchers to study Alzheimer’s Disease and related dementias among Arab Americans and directs the Michigan Center for Contextual Factors in Alzheimer’s Disease.
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Toni C. Antonucci
Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Literature, Science & the Arts
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social ResearchPh.D., Life Span Developmental Psychology, Wayne State University
Antonucci A-EInterests
Dr. Antonucci’s research examines the cross sectional, longitudinal and cohort effects of social relations to assess whether they contemporaneously or longitudinally predict health and well-being. She seeks to examine, clarify, and explain some of the recent complexities identified concerning social relations as well as their ability to help cope with or increase vulnerability to stress and other risk factors
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Kelly Marie Bakulski
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health
Ph.D., Environmental Health Sciences, University of Michigan
Bakulski A-EInterests
Dr. Bakulski’s research focuses on the genetics of mental and cognitive health. She also has experience with heavy metals exposure assessment, particularly biomarkers of cumulative lead exposure. Dr. Bakulski’s current research integrates and applies multiple genome-wide measures to understand disease risk. In addition, she studies the interactions between multiple pollutant exposures and genetics in aging populations on the risk of cognitive decline.
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Sue Anne Bell
Assistant Professor, Department of Systems, Population and Leadership, School of Nursing
Ph.D., Nursing with Graduate Certificate in Women's Studies, University of Michigan
Bell A-EInterests
Sue Anne Bell is an Assistant Professor at the University of Michigan School of Nursing, with expertise in disaster preparedness and response, community health and emergency care. Her work focuses on the health and well-being of aging populations in the context of a disaster. She studies the long-term health impact of disasters with an emphasis on chronic health conditions and the relationship between community resilience, aging and disasters.
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Kira Birditt
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Human Development & Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University
Birditt A-EInterests
Dr. Birditt’s research focuses on the negative aspects of relationships, stress, and the implications of relationships and stress for health and well-being across the life span. She is particularly interested in understanding how relationships differentially influence health and well-being depending on the context of stress. Most of her projects involve examining individuals and dyads either over time and or within families.
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John Bound
Professor, Department of Economics, College of Literature, Science & the Arts
Research Professor, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social ResearchPh.D., Economics, Harvard University
Bound A-EInterests
Dr. Bound’s research focuses on economic, demographic, and policy influences on the labor force participation and health status of older people in the United States. His recent research has also included studies on racial differences in earnings, employment, and health and changes in the returns to higher education. Previously he served as MiCDA director for 15 years and he currently serves on the MiCDA Advisory Panel.
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Robin Brewer
Assistant Professor, School of Information
Ph.D., Technology and Social Behavior, Northwestern University
Brewer A-EInterests
Dr. Brewer’s research lies at the intersection of accessibility and social computing. Using primarily qualitative research methods, she designs and studies voice-based interfaces and online communities for older adults. Additionally, she has established partnerships with medium to large senior-serving residential and non-residential communities in the Midwestern United States to conduct sustainable community-engaged research.
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Sarah Burgard
Professor, Department of Sociology, College of Literature, Science & the Arts
Research Professor, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social ResearchPh.D., Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
Burgard A-EInterests
Dr. Burgard conducts research on the social stratification of aging and health with population-based survey data. She has published extensively on the social factors underlying health disparities by socioeconomic status, gender, and race/ethnicity across the life course. She studies the ways employment and other social roles like parenting constrain and enable women and men in their pursuit of financial security and career satisfaction. She currently serves as a MiCDA Advisory Panel member.
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James F. Burke
Associate Professor, Department of Neurology, Medical School
M.D., Medicine, Loyola University Stritch School of Medicine
Burke A-EInterests
Dr. Burke studies racial differences in long-term stroke outcomes and how to improve the value and cost-effectiveness of care for neurological conditions. He also applies advanced statistical methodology to optimize diagnostic and treatment decisions for individual patients.
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Julie P W Bynum
Professor, Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, Medical School Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School
M.D., Medicine, Johns Hopkins School of Medicine
Bynum A-EInterests
Dr. Bynum’s research focuses on the assessment of healthcare delivery for older adults using national U.S. Medicare healthcare data linked to other datasets. She has successfully led interdisciplinary teams to answer questions about the performance of the health system and the complex drivers of quality and costs, especially for older adults nearing the end of life or with Alzheimer’s disease.
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HwaJung Choi
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School
Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social ResearchPh.D., Economics, University of Michigan
Choi A-EInterests
Dr. Choi’s research focuses on the implications of family availability for healthcare and healthcare costs for older adults. She is currently examining the influence of family resources on care utilization among older adults with dementia and the role of local contextual factors in health differences at older ages between the US and England.
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Christine Cigolle
Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Medical School Associate Professor, Geriatric and Palliative Medicine, Medical School
M.D., Medicine, Northeastern Ohio Universities College of Medicine
Cigolle A-EInterests
Dr. Cigolle’s research investigates how geriatric conditions such as cognitive impairment contribute to multimorbidity in the older adult and to disability and mortality outcomes. She has broad experience in the secondary analysis of large datasets, including the methodological issues of missing data, variable specification and validation, and longitudinal analysis.
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Philippa J. Clarke
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public HealthPh.D., Social Science & Health, University of Toronto
Clarke A-EInterests
Dr. Clarke’s research interests center around the role of neighborhood built environments for health. Using population-based survey data linked to secondary data sources, she has investigated the importance of neighborhood social and built environments for disability, mobility and cognitive function and has identified inequalities by life course social position and residential location.
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Frederick Conrad
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Literature, Science & the ArtsPh.D., Cognitive Psychology, University of Chicago
Conrad A-EInterests
Dr. Conrad studies respondent behavior in a survey context. He has investigated biases in judgments about the frequency of behaviors, the effect of automatic progress feedback on respondents’ willingness to continue filling out a questionnaire, and the decision to participate in a survey. He currently directs the University of Michigan’s Program in Survey Methodology.
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Joshua Ehrlich
Assistant Professor, Department of Ophthalmology & Visual Sciences, Medical School
M.D., Medicine, Cornell University
Ehrlich A-EInterests
Dr. Ehrlich is a clinician-scientist whose research on vision impairment cross-cuts population health and health services research. He has an interest in the health and disability trajectories of older adults with visual and multisensory impairments. He conducts research on low vision and vision rehabilitation; aging and vision; and the epidemiology of eye disease. As a co-investigator on the National Health and Aging Trends Study, he has collaborated on the design of a set of vision tests for use by interviewers in the home.
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Jessica Faul
Research Associate Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Epidemiology, University of Michigan
Faul F-JInterests
Dr. Faul’s scholarly interests are at the intersection of epidemiology, biodemography, and aging. She is currently collaborating on a grant to identify gene-by-environment interactions and their influence on later life cognitive decline and is co-leading a study to characterize disparities in Alzheimer’s disease risk through analysis of polygenic risk and other epidemiologic factors. She is a co-investigator on the Health and Retirement Study and Harmonized Cognitive Assessment Protocol and has led the development of a workshop to train social scientists on the use of genomic data.
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Esther Friedman
Research Associate Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
Friedman F-JInterests
Dr. Friedman’s research examines how families and communities facilitate the health and wellbeing of older adults. Much of her recent work focuses on family caregiving. Her ongoing projects in this area examine the social support networks of family caregivers, the economic costs of family caregiving, and current and future kin availability for dementia care.
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Lauren Gerlach
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Medical School
D.O., Medicine, Western University of Health Sciences
Gerlach F-JInterests
Dr. Gerlach has used national surveys and administrative claims data to evaluate the growth of central nervous system medication polypharmacy use among older adults and to understand how health systems respond to warnings (e.g., from the US Food and Drug Administration) for psychotropic medications. She has also explored questions surrounding safe and rationale psychotropic medication prescribing among older adults.
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Arline T. Geronimus
Professor, Health Behavior & Health Education, School of Public Health
Research Professor, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social ResearchSc.D., Behavioral Sciences, Harvard School of Public Health
Geronimus F-JInterests
Dr. Geronimus originated the biopsychosocial theory of “weathering,” which posits that the health of African Americans is subject to early health deterioration as a consequence of social exclusion. Much of her scholarly work is related to developing and testing this framework.
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Michele Heisler
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School Professor, Health Behavior & Health Education, School of Public Health
M.D., Medicine, Harvard Medical School
Heisler F-JInterests
Dr. Heisler develops and tests evidence-based primary care interventions to prevent and manage chronic diseases, particularly diabetes. She has developed and tested several peer support models that were found effective in improving diabetes outcomes. She also led a multi-site clinical trial (the AIM study) that led to improved blood pressure among high-risk patients with diabetes.
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Brooke Helppie-McFall
Associate Research Scientist, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D, Economics, University of Michigan
Helppie-McFall F-JInterests
Dr. Helppie-McFall’s research interests include labor and demographic economics, the economics of aging, and survey methodology and design. Much of Helppie-McFall’s work and research agenda focuses on retirement planning, with respect to both timing and related decisions such as Social Security claiming, retirement sequencing, bridge jobs and working longer. A new area of interest is the interaction between cognition and economic decision-making.
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Geoffrey Hoffman
Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
Ph.D., Health Policy and Management, University of California at Los Angeles
Hoffman F-JInterests
Dr. Hoffman is a health services researcher who studies quality of care and policies affecting older adults. He has conducted research on fall injuries, the effects of caregiving and disease prevention and health promotion, and outcomes for older adults and caregivers related to pay-for-performance policies.
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Mengyao Hu
Assistant Research Scientist, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Survey Methodology, University of Michigan
Hu F-JInterests
Dr. Hu’s research interests include the identification and reduction of measurement errors in health surveys, longitudinal survey data analysis, and methodological issues that arise in survey research with older populations.
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Theodore J. Iwashyna
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School
Faculty Affiliate, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social ResearchM.D., Medicine, University of Chicago
Iwashyna F-J
Ph.D., Public Policy, University of ChicagoInterests
Dr. Iwashyna’s research focuses on the long-term impacts of acute health events, blending both clinical and social science perspectives. His recent work has examined the extent to which acute illnesses cause disruptions in the lives of patients and their families, and how social, organizational, and family factors moderate these adverse consequences. His research combines the traditional tools of demographic and health services research with emerging techniques in network analysis and longitudinal data analysis.
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David S. Johnson
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Research Professor, Public Policy, Gerald R. Ford School of Public PolicyPh.D., Economics, University of Minnesota
Johnson F-JInterests
Dr. Johnson’s research interests include the measurement of inequality and mobility (using income, consumption and wealth), the effects of tax rebates, equivalence scale estimation, poverty measurement, and price indexes. He currently serves as director of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics and organizes MiCDA’s network on Longitudinal Studies of Aging in the U.S.
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Sharon L. R. Kardia
Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health
Ph.D., Human Genetics, University of Michigan
Kardia K-OInterests
Dr. Kardia’s research focuses on the genetic epidemiology of common chronic diseases and their risk factors. She is particularly interested in gene-environment and gene-gene interactions and in developing novel analytical strategies to understand the complex relationship between genetic variation, environmental variation, and risk of common chronic diseases. Her research utilizes genomic, epigenomic, transcriptomic, and proteomic measures on large epidemiological cohorts. She is a Health and Retirement Study co-investigator.
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Carrie Anne Karvonen-Gutierrez
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health
Ph.D., Epidemiology, University of Michigan
Karvonen-Gutierrez K-OInterests
Dr. Karvonen-Gutierrez’s research focuses on the impact of chronological aging, reproductive aging and obesity and their intersections. She also studies the development and progression of chronic disease and musculoskeletal outcomes through the creation of a metabolically-dysfunctional and pro-inflammatory environment.
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Lindsay Kobayashi
Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health
Ph.D., Epidemiology & Public Health, University College London
Kobayashi K-OInterests
Dr. Kobayashi studies the social epidemiology of cognitive aging and health equity among low-income older populations. Her current research focuses on life course determinants of cognitive aging in rural South Africa and the population health implications of improving cancer survival rates in the U.S.
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Amanda Kowalski
Professor, Department of Economics, College of Literature, Science & the Arts Professor, Public Policy, Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Kowalski K-OInterests
Dr. Kowalski specializes in bringing together theoretical models and econometric techniques to answer questions that inform current debates in health care. Her recent research advances methods to analyze experiments and clinical trials with the goal of designing policies to target insurance expansions and medical treatments to vulnerable populations.
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David Lam
Professor, Department of Economics, College of Literature, Science & the Arts Director, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Economics, University of California, Berkeley
Lam K-OInterests
Dr. Lam’s research incorporates economic theory, mathematical demography, and empirical econometrics to analyze the economics of population dynamics, marriage, fertility, and intergenerational support. Much of his research has focused on education, health, and the economics of population aging. He has worked extensively in Brazil and South Africa, where a particular focus of his research is on intergenerational transmission of extreme inequality in these countries. Dr. Lam previously served as MiCDA director from 1999-2003.
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Kenneth M. Langa
Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social ResearchPh.D., Health Policy, University of Chicago M.D., Medicine, University of Chicago
Langa K-OInterests
Dr. Langa’s research focuses on the epidemiology and costs of chronic disease in older adults, with an emphasis on Alzheimer’s disease and other dementias. Dr. Langa’s is currently studying the relationship of cardiovascular risk factors to cognitive decline and dementia in middle-age and older adults. He serves as an Associate Director for the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and as a MiCDA Advisory Panel Member.
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Pearl Lee
Associate Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School
M.D., Medicine, Saint Louis University
Lee K-OInterests
Dr. Lee has a long-standing interest in how to improve the functioning of older adults – both cognitive and physical – to preserve their independence and improve their quality of life. Her research interests also include how to improve the quality of medical care for older adults with multiple medical conditions, particularly those with diabetes mellitus, geriatric conditions and physical function disabilities.
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Amanda Leggett
Research Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Medical School
Ph.D., Human Development & Family Studies, The Pennsylvania State University
Leggett K-OInterests
Dr. Leggett’s research focuses on the development of a taxonomy of dementia caregiving care management styles and determining how style might be used to target interventions and optimize care. She is also interested in depression and sleep problems in caregivers and older adults more broadly.
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Susan Hautaniemi Leonard
Associate Research Scientist, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Anthropology, University of Michigan
Leonard K-OInterests
Dr. Leonard’s areas of research include macro- and micro-level population processes and land-use in the Great Plains, including migration and aging populations and intergenerational transfers. She has also studied the evolution of nomenclature for deaths at older ages and mortality in industrial communities.
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Margaret Levenstein
Director, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research & School of InformationPh.D., Economics, Yale University
Levenstein K-OInterests
Dr. Levenstein’s research focuses on the evolution of information systems and relationship with firm organization, historical changes in firm competition, information networks, contemporary international cartels, and the design of competition policies for a global economy. She currently directs the Institute for Social Research’s Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR) and serves as a MiCDA Advisory Panel Member.
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Jersey Liang
Professor, Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health Research Professor, Institute of Gerontology, Medical School
Ph.D., Sociology, Wayne State University
Liang K-OInterests
Dr. Liang’s research interests focus on social determinants of health and well-being in old age in the United States and East Asian countries including Japan, Taiwan, and China. Throughout his career, he has been particularly interested in the dynamic linkages between health and living arrangements in old age within the context of social stratification across diverse social and cultural settings.
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Cindy Lustig
Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Literature, Science & the Arts
Ph.D., Psychology, Duke University
Lustig K-OInterests
Dr. Lustig’s research program examines how adults control and overcome different forms of interference, and the consequences when they don’t. Underlying themes in her cognitive aging work emphasize factors that influence task engagement, including how task constraints versus monetary incentives affect age differences in performance, reports of boredom, distraction, and mind-wandering.
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Elham Mahmoudi
Assistant Professor, Department of Family Medicine, Medical School
Ph.D., Economics, Wayne State University
Mahmoudi K-OInterests
Dr. Mahmoudi’s research interests include evaluating healthcare policies, reducing disparities in access to quality healthcare, and optimizing care management for patients with multiple chronic conditions.
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Donovan T. Maust
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Medical School
M.D., Medicine, Johns Hopkins University
Maust K-OInterests
Dr. Maust’s research interests focus on ensuring that older adults with mental health and cognitive disorders receive targeted, timely, and appropriate intervention.
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Katherine McGonagle
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Social Psychology, Miami University
McGonagle K-OInterests
Dr. McGonagle is a social psychologist with research interests in the areas of survey research methods, health, and well-being. McGonagle’s recent work is on the design and evaluation of data collection protocols to increase retention of panel study members and improve data quality, including the development of respondent contact materials, questionnaire design features, and the use of mixed mode approaches. Dr. McGonagle serves as an Associate Director of the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID).
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James McNally
Associate Research Scientist, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Sociology/Demography, Brown University
McNally K-OInterests
Dr. McNally’s research focuses on aging and life course issues and on methodological approaches to the improvement and enhancement of secondary research data. He is currently working on innovative tools and approaches to allow more efficient access to restricted data in a manner that maximizes both efficiency and subject confidentiality. He currently leads the NACDA Program on Aging, a data archive distributing studies on health and the aging life course.
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Roshanak Mehdipanah
Assistant Professor, Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public Health
Ph.D., Biomedicine, University of Pompeu Fabra
Mehdipanah K-OInterests
Dr. Mehdipanah’s research interests focus on social determinants of health including aging, ethnicity, and gender and their link to various health outcomes including mental health, physical health and overall wellbeing. Her current research focuses on the relationship between housing and health in later life.
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Helen Meier
Assistant Research Scientist, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Epidemiologic Sciences, University of Michigan
Meier K-OInterests
Dr. Meier’s research focuses on biosocial approaches to health inequalities and aging. She uses a life course framework to understand the molecular pathways by which social and environmental exposures occurring throughout life get “under the skin” to affect adult and later life health.
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Carlos Mendes de Leon
Professor, Department of Epidemiology and Global Public Health, School of Public Health
Ph.D., Preventive Medicine and Community Health, The University of Texas Medical Branch
Mendes de Leon K-OInterests
Dr. Mendes de Leon’s research focuses social and psychological determinants of late-life health and health disparities, with a particular emphasis on black-white differences. Specific areas of interest include the role of neighborhood social processes and environments in late-life health, the complex interplay between life-course social conditions and biological processes and their impact on late-life functional decline, and the cumulative and interactive effects of racial background and life-course socioeconomic disadvantage on health and well-being in later life.
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Colter Mitchell
Research Associate Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Faculty Associate, Population Studies Center, Institute for Social ResearchPh.D., Sociology, University of Michigan
Mitchell K-OInterests
Dr. Mitchell is interested in the influence of the social and familial environmental on health and behavior over the life course. His earlier research focused mainly on the social environment and child and young adult behavior in early life. Over the last decade, he has expanded on this research by examining how social contextual factors interact with genetic, epigenetic, and neurodevelopment factors to predict health and wellbeing over the life course, including in later life.
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Edward Norton
Professor, Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health Professor, Department of Economics, College of Literature, Science & the Arts
Ph.D., Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Norton K-OInterests
Dr. Norton has a long-standing interest in long-term care and aging. He also uses modern econometrics to control for endogeneity and obtain causal estimates.
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Sela Panapasa
Associate Research Scientist, Research Center for Group Dynamics, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Sociology/Demography, Brown University
Panapasa P-TInterests
Dr. Panapasa studies family support and intergenerational exchanges among aged Pacific Islanders living in the US and Pacific region. Her work examines changes in elderly living arrangements and headship status in response to demographic and socioeconomic change.
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Sarah E. Patterson
Research Investigator, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, The Pennsylvania State University
Patterson P-TInterests
Dr. Patterson is a Family Demographer and Sociologist. Her research addresses whether and how social norms and family composition influence caregiving behaviors and wellbeing for family members. Her research is interdisciplinary and has been published in demography, sociology, family studies, and gerontology journals.
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Mark D Peterson
Associate Professor, Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, Medical School
Ph.D., Physical Activity, Nutrition & Wellness, Arizona State University
Peterson P-TInterests
Dr. Peterson’s background is in physical activity and rehabilitation science with an interest in factors that influence health and life expectancy in persons with and without disabilities. His specific research interests have been devoted to physical activity epidemiology and behavioral interventions for the treatment/prevention of obesity and related cardiometabolic diseases, frailty, functional motor declines, cognitive health, and early mortality.
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Fabian T. Pfeffer
Research Associate Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Associate Professor, Department of Sociology, College of Literature, Science & the ArtsPh.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin, Madison
Pfeffer P-TInterests
Dr. Pfeffer’s research focuses on the transmission of socio-economic status across two or more generations in the United States and other industrialized countries. Recent projects have investigated the change in wealth inequality during the Great Recession, the relationship between parents’ wealth and their children’s educational and occupational outcomes (compared both across time and countries), and the transmission of inequality across multiple generations in the United States.
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Amy M. Pienta
Research Scientist, Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Sociology, University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
Pienta P-TInterests
Dr. Pienta studies retirement and health in later life. Her current research focuses on determinants of couples’ retirement behavior and uncovering social processes underlying health disparities among African Americans.
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Courtney Allyn Polenick
Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Medical School
Ph.D., Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University
Polenick P-TInterests
Dr. Polenick’s research interests center on family relationships and family caregiving. She is particularly interested in understanding mutual influences within older couples managing chronic conditions including dementia and multimorbidity.
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Lindsay Ryan
Associate Research Scientist, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University
Ryan P-TInterests
Dr. Ryan’s research investigates individual and contextual influences on psychological well-being, physical health, and cognition as adults age. She has extensive experience developing, implementing and harmonizing over the life course new measures for studies of older adults.
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Matthew D. Shapiro
Professor, Department of Economics, College of Literature, Science & the Arts
Research Professor & Director, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social ResearchPh.D., Economics, Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Shapiro P-TInterests
Dr. Shapiro’s interests focus on integrating administrative data measurements to study late-life processes, including savings and retirement, health and long-term care behaviors. His research activities have focused on creating new data resources and using household-level and business-level data to address questions concerning macroeconomics, finance, saving, retirement, health, and long-term care.
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Yajuan Si
Research Assistant Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Statistical Science, Duke University
Si P-TInterests
Dr. Si’s research interests lie in cutting-edge methodology development in streams of Bayesian statistics, complex survey inference, missing data imputation, causal inference, and data confidentiality protection with older populations.
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Lesli E. Skolarus
Professor, Department of Neurology, Medical School
Professor, Health Behavior and Health Education, School of Public HealthM.D., Medicine, Wayne State University
Skolarus P-TInterests
Dr. Skolarus research interests focus on disability, caregiving, transitions in care and the promotion of health equity among older adults with neurological conditions. Her recent work investigates end-of-life experiences among older individuals with ischemic stroke, intracerebral hemorrhage and amyotrophic lateral sclerosis.
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Jacqui Smith
Professor, Department of Psychology, College of Literature, Science & the Arts
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social ResearchPh.D., Psychology, Macquarie University
Smith P-TInterests
Dr. Smith applies life course/lifespan theory to the study of health and well-being in late life. Much of her research focuses on tracing life course predictors and pathways of different trajectories of functional maintenance, change, and survival. She serves as a co-investigator on the Health and Retirement Study.
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Jennifer A. Smith
Associate Professor, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health
Research Assistant Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social ResearchPh.D., Epidemiologic Sciences, University of Michigan
Smith P-TInterests
Dr. Smith studies genomics, transcriptomics, and epigenomics of age-related chronic disease and its risk factors. Her recent research investigates the interaction between genetic risk and socioeconomic risk factors as determinants of chronic disease phenotypes, particularly those that lead to disparities in health.
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Amanda Sonnega
Associate Research Scientist, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Health Psychology, Johns Hopkins University
Sonnega P-TInterests
Dr. Sonnega conducts research on the social contextual determinants of work, health and well-being within a multidisciplinary life course. Her current work examines both health and work with a goal of informing policies that can positively affect both.
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Melvin Stephens
Professor, Department of Economics, College of Literature, Science & the Arts Professor, Public Policy, Gerald R Ford School of Public Policy
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan
Stephens P-TInterests
Dr. Stephens’ research intersects labor economics, household consumption behavior, and aging and retirement issues. His current work examines the relationship between food intake and retirement using cross-sectional datasets spanning four decades as well as a number of longitudinal datasets.
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Renuka Tipirneni
Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Michigan Medicine
M.D., Medicine, University of California, San Francisco
Tipirneni P-TInterests
Dr. Tipirneni’s research examines the impact of health reform policies and programs on low-income, aging and other vulnerable populations and care delivery in the health care safety net.
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Erin Bakshis Ware
Research Assistant Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Epidemiological Sciences, University of Michigan
Ware U-ZInterests
Dr. Ware conducts high throughput statistical analysis of genomic data to study disparities by in psychiatric outcomes by race and sex. She also explores gene-environment interactions as determinants of chronic disease.
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Noah J. Webster
Associate Research Scientist, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Sociology, Case Western Reserve
Webster U-ZInterests
Dr. Webster’s research focuses on social relations across the life course and highlights how social ties can serve as a resource across various age groups and in particular during later life.
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Melissa Y. Wei
Adjunct Assistant Professor, Department of Internal Medicine, Medical School
M.D., Medicine, Oregon Health & Science University
Wei U-ZInterests
Dr. Wei studies multimorbidity, including its measurement, prognosis, and prevention in older adults. She also seeks to understand how multimorbidity influences clinical outcomes, healthcare costs, and policy. Through this work she Her aims to prevent multimorbidity progression and complications such as physical impairment.
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David Weir
Research Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Economics, Stanford University
Weir U-ZInterests
Dr. Weir’s research interests include the measurement of health-related quality of life; the use of cost-effectiveness measures in health policy and medical decision-making; the role of supplemental health insurance in the Medicare population; the effects of health, gender, and marital status on economic well-being in retirement; and the effects of early-life experience on longevity and health at older ages. He has directed the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) since 2007. and organizes MiCDA’s HRS Sister Studies Network.
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Laura Beth Zahodne
Assistant Professor, Psychology, College of Literature, Science & the Arts
Faculty Associate, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social ResearchPh.D., Clinical Psychology, University of Florida
Zahodne U-ZInterests
Dr. Zahodne’s research focuses on cognitive and brain aging, Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD), and racial disparities in ADRD. The overall aim of her research program is to understand how psychosocial experiences influence late-life cognitive trajectories and the expression of neurodegenerative disease.
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Wei Zhao
Assistant Research Scientist, Department of Epidemiology, School of Public Health
Ph.D., Psychology, University of Michigan
Zhao U-ZInterests
Dr. Zhao’s work spans several areas of genomic epidemiology, including gene discovery, gene-environment interaction, epigenomics, transcriptomics, mitochondrial genomics, and risk prediction.
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Kara Zivin
Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Medical School Professor, Health Management and Policy, School of Public Health
Ph.D., Health Policy, Harvard University
Zivin U-ZInterests
Dr. Zivin studies intended and unintended consequences of policies that influence vulnerable populations with mental disorders, including older adults. Her research focuses on predictors and consequences of depression, particularly among vulnerable populations, including the elderly, people with multiple medical comorbidities and people who face barriers to accessing and adhering to depression treatment.