Faculty Directory
A key goal of the Center is to bring together faculty working on cutting edge research in topics related to healthy aging. Currently, the Center has more than 80 faculty affiliates across 7 colleges and 25 departments. If you are interested in being a Center for Healthy Aging affiliate faculty member, please fill out this survey, and we will be in touch.
| Name | Research Area | Research Expertise | Department | College |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jianguo Zhao | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Design and control of robotics devices | Mechanical Engineering | College of Engineering |
| Stu Tobet | Comparative Aging; Biology and Physiology of Aging | Structures in the brain that control neuroendocrine functions; Microbiome and aging | School of Biomedical Engineering | College of Engineering |
| Zhijie Wang | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Cardiovascular biomechanics at different scales (single segment of artery to whole organs including the heart and lungs) | Mechanical Engineering | College of Engineering |
| Allyson Brothers | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Promotion of healthy aging throughout the lifespan; attitudes toward aging and awareness of age-related change; the influence of attitudes toward aging on health, well-being, and health behaviors; rural aging experiences | Human Development and Family Studies | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Laura Malinin | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Age-related cognitive decline and enriched environments | Design and Merchandising | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Chris Gentile | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Novel treatments to preserve endothelial function in aging | Food Science and Human Nutrition | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Sarah Johnson | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Functional foods, cardiovascular disease and post-menopausal women | Food Science and Human Nutrition | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Tom LaRocca | Comparative Aging; Biology and Physiology of Aging; Cognitive, Brain, and Behavioral Aging | Biological Mechanisms of Aging, Interventions for Increasing Healthspan | Health and Exercise Science | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Chris Bell | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Diabetes; control of blood glucose in aging | Health and Exercise Science | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Barry Braun | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Effects of physical activity and pharmacology on prevention and management of type 2 diabetes | Health and Exercise Science | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Brett Fling | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Neuromechanics, brain imaging, gait and balance in Multiple Sclerosis, Parkinson’s, Aging | Health and Exercise Science | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Karyn Hamilton | Comparative Aging; Biology and Physiology of Aging | Integrative approach to studying age-associated chronic diseases, primarily focused on how to maintain muscle, both skeletal and cardiac, over the lifespan | Health and Exercise Science | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Dan Lark | Biology and Physiology of Aging | The contribution of secreted extracellular vesicles (i.e., exosomes) to age-related metabolic disease | Health and Exercise Science | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Heather Leach | Biology and Physiology of Aging; Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Physical activity interventions to minimize recurrence and optimize physical health and well-being in cancer survivors | Health and Exercise Science | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Neha Lodha | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Neurophysiology and motor skill rehabilitation in stroke and TIA | Health and Exercise Science | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Brian Tracy | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Examining the mechanisms that explain neuromuscular decline with aging and the physical functional consequences of the changes | Health and Exercise Science | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Allison Bielak | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Normal and pathological cognitive changes in adulthood; influence of lifestyle factors on cognitive aging; intraindividual variability in cognitive speed and how it relates to cognitive ability, health, and possible dementia prediction | Human Development and Family Studies | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Aga Burzynska | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Interconnections between brain structure and function, cognitive functioning, and physical health in older age | Human Development and Family Studies | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Manfred Diehl | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Awareness of age-related change and its role in successful aging; personality development in adulthood and its contribution to successful aging; experience and regulation of emotion in adulthood | Human Development and Family Studies | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Christine Fruhauf | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Grandparent and grandchild relationships; grandparents raising grandchildren; GLBT grandparenting | Human Development and Family Studies | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Gloria Luong | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Socioemotional dynamics and emotion regulation across the life-span; emotional and physiological stress reactivity and recovery; developmental links between social relationships, emotions, health, and well-being | Human Development and Family Studies | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Anita Bundy | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Fitness to drive; everyday time use | Occupational Therapy | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Aaron Eakman | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Meaningfulness of everyday activity; behavioral (i.e., non-pharmacological) interventions to promote sleep | Occupational Therapy | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Arlene Schmid | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Complementary and integrative therapies such as yoga for fall prevention in older adults and people with stroke or other neuro conditions; self-management of chronic conditions | Occupational Therapy | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Eunhee Choi | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Aging, health, and policy, particularly for older workers and volunteers; research methodology and program evaluation. | Social Work | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Eric Ross | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Yeast prions as a model for amyloid diseases, including Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease, and transmissible spongiform encephalopathies | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Michael Thomas | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Schizophrenia, aging, and dementia; Development of tests to improve the collection and interpretation of cognitive and brain imaging data | Psychology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Tingting Yao | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Regulatory mechanisms in DNA repair and gene expression; ubiquitin signaling in macroautophagy | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Shrideep Pallickara | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Cloud computing, distributed systems, content distribution networks, streaming systems | Computer Science | College of Natural Sciences |
| Deana Davalos | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Understanding the development of time processing abilities over the life span, including older adults, with emphasis on processing time accurately | Psychology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Ed DeLosh | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Aging and memory, including effects of physical fitness on age-related declines in memory | Psychology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Gwen Fisher | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Health and well-being among older workers; retirement, work ability, and prolonged working life; work/non-work interface, including work/non-work conflict, enhancement, and work/life balance. | Psychology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Matt Rhodes | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Understanding individual differences in memory, including the impact of healthy aging on memory function | Psychology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Silvia Sara Canetto | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Cultural scripts of suicide and hastened death, and the paradox of US older-adult White men's suicide vulnerability. Stereotypes of gender, sexual orientation, and aging. | Psychology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Susan Bailey | Comparative Aging; Biology and Physiology of Aging | Role of chromosomes and telomeres in cancer and other human disease states, tumorigenesis and aging | Biomedical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Adam Chicco | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Various aspects of heart health and disease from the molecular to systemic levels and relation to aging | Biomedical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Frederic Hoerndli | Biology and Physiology of Aging | C. elegans genetics and in vivo microscopy to study synaptic aging and neurodegeneration | Biomedical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Seonil Kim | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Neurobiological mechanisms in Aging and Alzheimer’s disease | Biomedical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Julie Moreno | Biology and Physiology of Aging; Comparative Aging | Cellular stress mechanisms in protein misfolding neurodegenerative diseases and aging | Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Mike Tamkun | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Neuronal response to stroke/ischemia. Cell biology of traumatic brain injury | Biomedical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Susan Tsunoda | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Drosophila genetics to study neurodegenerative disease; Aging and Alzheimer’s disease | Biomedical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Ron Tjalkens | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Neuroinflammatory mechanisms in neurodegenerative disorders, particularly disorders of the basal ganglia such as manganism and Parkinson’s disease | Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Candace Mathiason | Comparative Aging; Biology and Physiology of Aging | Prion pathobiology, pathogenesis, trafficking, and transmission dynamics with emphasis on blood-borne prions and asymptomatic disease stage | Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Kelly Santangelo | Biology and Physiology of Aging; Comparative Aging | Osteoarthritis, aging, and obesity: Translational analyses that combine therapeutic interventions with molecular mechanisms, advanced imaging, and assessments of mobility | Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Glenn Telling | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Mechanism of prion replication, prion species barriers and strain diversity, and the molecular basis of inherited human prion diseases | Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Mark Zabel | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Early lymphoid system distribution of prions and employs vector systems expressing prion-targeted interfering RNA molecules as therapeutic strategies for prion infections | Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Felix Duerr | Comparative Aging | Small animal musculoskeletal problems, including arthritis, sports injury treatment and prevention; canine-to-human translational applications | Clinical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Stephanie McGrath | Comparative Aging | Seizure and spinal cord disorders, inflammatory brain diseases; canine-to-human translational applications | Clinical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Nicole Ehrhart | Comparative Aging, Biology and Physiology of Aging | Translational aging, limb preservation, tissue engineering, and sarcoma research; bone and muscle regenerative medicine; canine-to-human translational applications | Clinical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| David Rojas-Rueda | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Environmental health; climate change; urban and transport planning; epidemiology; public health; community-based participatory research; environmental justice; health equity | Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Maria Delgado | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Aging in place; housing design | Design and Merchandising | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Lindsey Wilhelm | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Music therapy for care partners and aging adults with neurologic conditions | Music Therapy | College of Liberal Arts |
| James Graham | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Rehabilitation health services | Occupational Therapy | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Adela Chen | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Understanding the use of Information Communication Technologies (ICTs) among individuals, including older adults, with emphasis on the impact of technology use in work and non-work domains | Computer Information Systems | College of Business |
| Ray Miller | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Economics of caregiving, population aging, the inequality of health and economic well-being among older populations; health policy | Economics | College of Liberal Arts |
| Harry Turtle | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Financial decisions of households represented in the Health and Retirement Study and the RAND American Life Panel | Finance and Real Estate | College of Business |
| Tianyang Wang | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Household financial planning strategies for managing longevity risk; behavior finance | Finance and Real Estate | College of Business |
| Katriana Popichak | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Neurodegenerative disease and neuroimmunology | Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Elizabeth Ryan | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Food access, affordability, and availability; Brain fog, forgetfulness, and cognitive function concerns in long-COVID and cancer patients | Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Greg Ebel | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Virus infection; Nursing home surveillance; Arboviruses; Differential pathology/mortality in older adults | Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Marcela Henao Tamayo | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Immune responses to vaccines and infectious diseases; how these responses vary with age and in relation to degenerative disorders and co-morbidities; maternal-fetal immune transfer | Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Thomas Kuhn | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Cellular and molecular mechanisms underlying the decline of neuronal integrity and connectivity in aging individuals; natural-product drug development | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Jennifer Currin-McCulloch | Cognitive, Social and Behavioral Aging | Psychosocial adaptions to serious illness and how people cope at end-of-life; caregiver experiences | Social Work | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Stephen Aichele | Cognitive, Social and Behavioral Aging | Cognitive epidemiology; Advanced longitudinal modeling and machine learning approaches to risk analysis (for cognitive decline, depression, mortality) in middle-aged and older adults; Cognitive testing for early diagnosis | Human Development and Family Studies | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Meara Faw | Cognitive, Social and Behavioral Aging | Positive communication and intervention strategies for caregivers; community-based experiences to promote healthy aging in people with cognitive impairments and their caregivers | Communication Studies | College of Liberal Arts |
| Kirk McGilvray | Comparative Aging | Deterioration and/or trauma to the skeletal system and soft tissues; development of advanced materials, techniques, and devices to monitor and aid in the treatment of these conditions | Mechanical Engineering | College of Engineering |
| Kelly Hall | Comparative Aging | Naturally occurring trauma in dogs as a model to identify markers of injury; therapeutic interventions to improve outcomes in geriatric trauma patients | Clinical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Brian Scansen | Comparative Aging | Partner site for the Dog Aging Project; cardiovascular health in animals | Clinical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Lisa Morgan | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Movement/dance and Parkinson's disease | Dance | College of Liberal Arts |
| Alan Schenkel | Biology & Physiology of Aging | Pulmonary fibrosis and non-tuberculosis mycobacterial infections in immunocompetent people | Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Lubna Tahtamouni | Biology & Physiology of Aging | Pathogenesis of cofilin-actin rods in neurodegenerative diseases; Actin dynamics during migration of breast cancer cells | Biochemistry and Molecular Biology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Jeffrey Wilusz | Biology & Physiology of Aging | RNA biology; influence of aging on the cell | Microbiology, Immunology and Pathology | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Laurie Goodrich | Comparative Aging | Regenerative medicine; Effects of age on various biologic therapies | Clinical Sciences | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
| Lise Aubry | Comparative Aging | Life history trade-offs and senescence in vertebrates | Fish, Wildlife, and Conservation Biology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Tony Maciejewski | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Rehabilitation robotics to aid recovery from injuries; Social robotics for cognitive or emotional support | Electrical and Computer Engineering | College of Engineering |
| Elicia Ratajczyk | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Environmental social science; sustainable urban infrastructure; Lifelong Homes Initiative | Institute for the Built Environment | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Sara LoTemplio | Cognitive, Social and Behavioral Aging | How spending time outside in nature can influence human cognition and health | Human Dimensions of Natural Resources | Warner College of Natural Resources |
| Josiane Broussard | Biology and Physiology of Aging | The role of sleep and circadian physiology in metabolic homeostasis; Modifying behaviors (sleep, exercise and eating) to improve health | Health and Exercise Science | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Tianjian Zhou | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Applied statistics with a focus on clinical trials, cancer genomics, and infectious diseases | Statistics | College of Natural Sciences |
| Jain Kwon | Age-Friendly Engineering, Design and Rehabilitation | Neurodesign for physical and virtual environments; Gaze behaviors in wayfinding; Spatial perception and cognition in healthcare environments; Kinesthetic experience in multisensory settings | Design and Merchandising | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Hollis Karoly | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Using behavioral measures, molecular biology methods, and neuroimaging techniques to understand the causes and consequences of substance use behavior, especially alcohol and cannabis use. | Psychology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Niccole Nelson | Cognitive, Social, and Behavioral Aging | Link between short-term stress and emotion regulation and long-term cognitive, emotional, and physical development in older adults | Psychology | College of Natural Sciences |
| Tiffany Weir | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Disruptions to the gut microbiome and the development of age-associated chronic diseases, such as cancer and cardiovascular disease | Food Science and Human Nutrition | College of Health and Human Sciences |
| Grace Borlee | Biology and Physiology of Aging | Intergenerational learning in undergraduate STEM education; Arthropod microbiomes | Microbiology, Immunology, and Pathology | College of Veterinary Medicine and Biomedical Sciences |
