People
Organizers
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Neil Mehta
Associate Professor, University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston
Ph.D., Demography, University of Pennsylvania
Mehta K-OInterests
Dr. Mehta’s research interests focus on socioeconomic and racial/ethnic health disparities and the modelling of complex population health dynamics. His prior work has contributed to understanding the contributions of obesity and cigarette smoking to mortality and disability levels, the mechanisms through which health disparities arise, and healthy life expectancy. Dr. Mehta co-organizes MiCDA’s network on TRENDS in Old-Age Disability.
Network Affiliates
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Hiram Beltran-Sanchez
Associate Professor, UCLA Fielding School of Public Health
Ph.D., Demography, University of Pennsylvania
Beltran A-EInterests
Dr. Beltran-Sanchez studies the demography of health and aging, with particular focus on Latin American countries; biodemographic patterns of health in adult populations; and development and application of demographic methods to investigate health inequalities using macro and micro data.
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Eileen Crimmins
AARP Professor of Gerontology, University of Southern California
Ph.D., Demography, University of Pennsylvania
Crimmins A-EInterests
Dr. Crimmins’ research focuses on changes over time in health and mortality. She has been instrumental in organizing and promoting the recent integration of the measurement of biological indicators in large population surveys. Dr. Crimmins directs the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health.
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Jennifer Beam Dowd
Professor, University of Oxford
Ph.D., Demography and Public Affairs, Princeton University
Dowd A-EInterests
Dr. Dowd’s research examines how social and biological processes interact over the life course to impact health and longevity. Her current research investigates the impact of COVID-19 on population mortality as well as the causes of stalling life expectancy in the US and UK.
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Joshua Ehrlich
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. He is also one of the PIs of the Longitudinal Study of Health and Ageing in Kenya (LOSHAK) project.
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Vicki A. Freedman
Research Professor, University of Michigan
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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Mark D. Hayward
Professor, University of Texas at Austin
Ph.D., Sociology, Indiana University
Hayward F-JInterests
Dr. Hayward’s primary research addresses how life course exposures and events influence the morbidity and mortality experiences of the adult population. He has recently collaborated with a team of researchers examining the role of federal and state policies shaping the growing inequality in life chances in the US adult population.
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Christine L. Himes
Dean, Lewis College of Human Sciences, Illinois Institute of Technology
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, University of Pennsylvania
Himes F-JInterests
Dr. Himes’ expertise is in the areas of demography of aging, family caregiving, and patterns of health and mortality in later life. Her recent research examines the role of obesity in health and functioning at older ages.
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Lindsay Kobayashi
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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Mary Beth Landrum
Professor, Harvard Medical School
Ph.D., Biostatistics, University of Michigan
Landrum K-OInterests
Dr. Landrum’s primary research focus is on the development and application of statistical methodology for health services research.This research has several related themes, including the development of medical guidelines and the profiling of health care providers.
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Kenneth M. Langa
Research Professor, University of Michigan
Ph.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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Linda G. Martin
Senior Fellow, RAND Corporation
Ph.D., Economics, Princeton University
Martin K-OInterests
Dr. Martin has conducted research on population aging in the United States and Asia. Her work has ranged from the labor force consequences of aging to the living arrangements of older people and, most recently, to trends in their health.
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Ryan K. Masters
Assistant Professor, University of Colorado Boulder
Ph.D., Sociology with Demography Specialization, University of Texas at Austin
Masters K-OInterests
Dr. Masters studies long-term trends in US morbidity, chronic diseases, and mortality rates. His research has focused on cohort-based changes in life course mechanisms of health outcomes, the health consequences of the US obesity epidemic, and new methodological approaches to studying period-based and cohort-based factors related to adult health.
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Jennifer Karas Montez
Professor, Syracuse University
Ph.D., Sociology with Demography Specialization, University of Texas at Austin
Montez K-OInterests
Dr. Montez’s research examines the large and growing inequalities in adult mortality across education levels and geographic areas within the United States. She is particularly interested in why the growing inequalities have been most troublesome among women.
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Mikko Myrskyla
Director, Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research
Ph.D., Statistics, University of Helsinki and Ph.D., Demography, University of Pennsylvania
Myrskyla K-OInterests
Most of Dr. Myrskyla’s research is on population health, contemporary fertility trends and demographic forecasting. His recent work has focused on the stagnation of the U.S.. life expectancy and the role of health behaviors in explaining health inequalities within and across nations.
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Jean-Marie Robine
Research Director, Institut National De La Sante et de La Recherche Medicale (INSERM)
Ph.D., Expert Demographer, Institut de Démographie de Paris, Université de Paris 1
Robine P-TInterests
Dr. Robine’s research investigates human longevity, with the aim of understanding the relations between health and longevity. Since its creation he has been the coordinator of the International Network on Health Expectancy (REVES).
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Brenda C. Spillman
Senior Fellow, Urban Institute
Ph.D., Economics, The Maxwell School, Syracuse University
Spillman P-TInterests
Dr. Spillman has more than 25 years of experience designing and conducting health and health care-related research projects. Her recent work focuses on chronic disease, understanding the causes of functional impairment, and promoting maximum health and functioning, including primary disease prevention and improved management.
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Lois M. Verbrugge
Research Professor Emerita, University of Michigan
Ph.D., Sociology, University of Michigan
Verbrugge U-ZInterests
Dr. Verbrugge is a social demographer who studies disability among midlife and older adults; how activities of older persons are affected by functional limitations; the twin issues of aging-with-disability and disability-with-aging; physical and social impacts of arthritis and other disabling conditions; and trends in activities and disability among midlife and older adults.
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Timothy A. Waidmann
Senior Fellow, Urban Institute
Ph.D., Economics, University of Michigan
Waidmann U-ZInterests
Dr. Waidmann conducts research on varied health policy topics, including disability and health among the elderly; Medicare and Medicaid policy; disability and employment; health care utilization among high-cost, high-risk populations; and the relationship between health and economic and social factors.
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Robert B. Wallace
Professor, University of Iowa
M.D., Medicine, Northwestern University
Wallace U-ZInterests
Dr. Wallace’s research interests include the epidemiology of aging, cancer epidemiology and control, and clinical preventive medicine. He has studied disability prevention for older persons for a variety of disabling illnesses including arthritis, cancer, cardiovascular diseases and dementia.
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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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Anna Zajacova
Associate Professor, University of Western Ontario
Ph.D., Sociology and Demography, Princeton University
Zajacova U-ZInterests
Dr. Zajacova studies social determinants of population health across the life course. Her research aims to understand how and why educational attainment is related to health.