People
Directors
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Kira Birditt
Research Professor, University of Michigan
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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Sarah E. Patterson
Research Assistant Professor, University of Michigan
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, The Pennsylvania State University
Patterson P-TInterests
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.
Network Members
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Emily M. Agree
Ph.D., Sociology, Duke University
Agree A-EInterests
Dr. Agree is a demographer with an interest in aging, health and the role of families and technology in later life. She has studied the use of assistive technologies by older adults, how older Americans navigate the Internet to find health-related information, and changing families of older adults.
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HwaJung Choi
Research Associate 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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Chanee Fabius
Assistant Professor, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Ph.D., Human Development and Family Studies, University of Connecticut
Fabius F-JInterests
Dr. Fabius studies older adults and people with disabilities using long-term services and supports (LTSS) in order to inform aging and disability policies to reduce health care disparities and improve health equity.
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Karen Fingerman
Ph.D., Psychology, University of Michigan
Fingerman F-JInterests
Dr. Fingerman studies how relationships with family members, friends, and acquaintances change from young adulthood to old age, with particular attention to emotional qualities of ties and support exchanges. She is currently overseeing the NIA-funded Daily Experiences and Well-being in Late Life Study, which focuses on older adults’ social relationships and physical and cognitive functioning in a daily context using a variety of sensory devices and ecologically valid assessments.
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Vicki A. Freedman
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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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, 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.
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Megan Gilligan
Associate Professor, College of Education and Human Development, University of Missouri
Ph.D., Sociology and Gerontology, Purdue University
Gilligan F-JInterests
Dr. Gilligan’s research focuses on later-life family relationships, health, and well-being, with particular interest in spousal, parent-child, and sibling relationships in the middle and later years. The primary focus of her research agenda is to examine the predictors and consequences of later-life family relationships, with an emphasis on family dynamics in the context of care provision.
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Sheria G. Robinson-Lane
Assistant Professor, School of Nursing
Ph.D., Nursing, Wayne State University
Lane K-OInterests
Dr. Sheria G. Robinson-Lane is a gerontologist with expertise in palliative care, long-term care, and nursing administration. Her work aims to reduce health disparities and improve health equity for diverse older adults and family caregivers managing pain and chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
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Amanda Leggett
Assistant Professor, Institute of Gerontology & Department of Psychology, Wayne State University
Adjunct Research Assistant Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Medical SchoolPh.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 working to study family caregiving networks more broadly and intersections with health and well-being for persons living with dementia.
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Lianlian Lei
Assistant Professor, Psychiatry Department, Michigan Medicine
Ph.D., Health Services Research and Policy, University of Rochester
Lei K-OInterests
Dr. Lei’s research addresses how family and unpaid caregiving impact the health care use of care recipients and caregivers and the reciprocal impact of serious illness between care recipient-caregiver dyads. She has also studied the socio-economic factors that impact Medicare enrollment decisions among older adults.
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I-Fen Lin
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Wisconsin-Madison
Lin K-OInterests
I-Fen Lin’s area of expertise include family sociology, aging, and survey methods. Much of her work examines parent-child relationships over the life course, with a focus on parents’ investment in children and adult children’s support of their aging parents. Her current projects examine the antecedents and consequences of gray divorce, family caregiving in late life, and discordance in parents’ and children’s reports of intergenerational transfer.
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Rachel Margolis
Ph.D., Demography & Sociology, University of Pennsylvania
Margolis K-OInterests
Dr. Margolis’ research focuses on how family dynamics shape population change over time. She studies how and why grandparenthood is changing over time, how family networks are evolving, and how the thinning of kinship networks affects older adults.
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Amilcar Matos-Moreno
Assistant Research Professor, Penn State University
Ph.D., Epidemiology, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor
Matos-Moreno K-OInterests
Dr. Matos-Moreno is a Social Epidemiologist researching the intertwined pathways between aging, migration, and overall health among older adults in the Caribbean. His most recent work is focused on social networks and kinlessness.
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Kate Miller
Assistant Professor, Bloomberg School of Public Health, Johns Hopkins University Associate Director, VA Caregiver Support Program Partnered Evaluation Center Investigator, VA Partnered Evidence-Based Policy Resource Center
Ph.D., Health Services Research, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill
Miller K-OInterests
Dr. Miller studies how public policies impact the long-term care workforce and the people with complex medical needs for whom they care. Her work focuses on how policies affect both paid and unpaid caregivers (e.g., wages, turnover, and well-being) and how these factors shape care quality and patient outcomes.
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Sung S. Park
Assistant Professor, University of Massachusetts Boston
Ph.D., Sociology, University of California, Los Angeles
Park P-TInterests
Sung S. Park is a sociologist and demographer studying how social relationships contribute to population-level inequality. Her research focuses on the family’s role as a safety net for racial minorities, race/ethnic disparities in work and employee well-being, and the role of kin networks within and across borders for immigrant incorporation.
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Sarah E. Patterson
Research Assistant Professor, Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, The Pennsylvania State University
Patterson P-TInterests
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.
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Courtney Allyn Polenick
Associate Professor, Department of Psychiatry, Medical School
Ph.D., Human Development and Family Studies, Pennsylvania State University
Polenick P-TInterests
Dr. Polenick’s research focuses on family relationships and caregiving in the context of complex care needs including dementia and multimorbidity. She is particularly interested in understanding family and social influences in everyday life that shape the health and well-being of older adults and their care partners. Her long-term goal is to inform interventions and policies that mitigate stress and promote resilience among older adults living with complex care needs and their families.
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Rin Reczek
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Texas at Austin
Reczek P-TInterests
Dr. Reczek is a sociologist and social demographer who studies family care across the life course using qualitative and quantitative approaches. Their research pays particular attention to how LGBTQ people navigate family life, including caregiving, within the context of LGBTQ discrimination and stigma.
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Adriana Reyes
Assistant Professor, Cornell University
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, The Pennsylvania State University
Reyes P-TInterests
Adriana Reyes is a sociologist and demographer studying intergenerational family dynamics and health disparities across the life course. She is particularly interested in how family ties provide social capital to help individuals navigate the life course, and how these family ties perpetuate inequalities across race and class.
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Judith A. Seltzer
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Michigan
Seltzer P-TInterests
Dr. Seltzer’s research interests include kinship patterns, intergenerational obligations, relationships between nonresident fathers and children, and how legal institutions and other policies affect family change. She is especially interested in kinship institutions that are in flux, such as marriage and cohabitation in the contemporary United States or divorced and non-marital families.
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Yulya Truskinovsky
Associate Professor of Economics, Syracuse University
Ph.D., Public Policy (Economics Concentration), Duke University
Truskinovsky P-TInterests
Dr. Truskinovsky is a health economist who studies aging, long term care and labor market outcomes. Her current research focuses on the impacts of social insurance programs on how individuals and families make decisions about work and family caregiving.
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Emily Wiemers
Ph.D., Economics, University of California, Los Angeles
Wiemers U-ZInterests
Dr. Wiemers studies economic well-being and intergenerational ties across the life course. She is particularly interested understanding the role that families play in promoting health and well-being and the differences in the connection between family and well-being across socioeconomic status, race-ethnicity, and geography.
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Douglas A. Wolf
Professor, Syracuse University
Ph.D., Public Policy Analysis, University of Pennsylvania
Wolf U-ZInterests
Dr Wolf’s research areas include the well-being and life course-patterns of the older population, such as household composition and parent-child coresidence; informal care of older persons, especially the care provided by family members; and the spatial distribution of kin and migration choices.
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Jennifer L. Wolff
Ph.D., Health Services Research, Johns Hopkins University
Wolff U-ZInterests
Dr. Wolff’s research focuses on the care of persons with complex health needs and disabilities and their family and other unpaid caregivers. She conducts survey- and claims-based research to assess the quality of care and experiences of older adults and their caregivers, drawing heavily on the National Health and Aging Trends Study and its linked National Study of Caregiving.
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Huijing Wu
Assistant Research Fellow, Institute of European and American Studies, Taiwan
Ph.D., Sociology, Bowling Green State University
Wu U-ZInterests
Dr. Wu’s research interests include union formation, health, and well-being in older adulthood. Her recent research project investigates how partnership status and family structure are related to the unmet need for help with personal care in later life.