Kathleen Cagney studies social inequality and its relationship to health and aging, with a particular focus on neighborhoods and race. She has also examined the role of the social environment and its impact on health and well-being over the lifecourse. Dr. Cagney is a faculty member in the Department of Sociology and Director of the Institute for Social Research.
Dr. Patterson’s research addresses whether and how social norms and family composition influence caregiving behaviors and wellbeing for family members. She has also studied the role of complex families and kinlessness in the lives of older adults.
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, including social support networks of family caregivers, the economic costs of family caregiving, and current and future kin availability for dementia care. Dr. Friedman leads MiCDA’s Network core and Longitudinal Studies on Aging in the U.S. Network.
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 Partner Studies Network.
Dr. Pienta’s research focuses on three areas: (1) life course and aging, (2) development of research infrastructure to support social and behavioral health research, and (3) data sharing and reuse behaviors.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.