ASI News – Fall 2021

Events

VPA MFA in Design students final presentations – Professor Don Carr and the VPA MFA in Design students, end-of-semester presentations explored various ways to address Falls by Older Adults. In attendance will be residents of the Oaks as well as students and faculty from Bioengineering that have been collaborating on these efforts. – 12/2021

CAPS Seminar – Panel Presentation: Archiving Social and Behavioral Data on Aging (Merril Silverstein, Dessi Kirilova & James McNally) – In this panel presentation, the process of qualitative and quantitative data archiving is discussed using the Longitudinal Study of Generations as an Example. Two archives are represented: Qualitative Data Repository (QDR, www.qdr.org) is an archive dedicated to qualitative data and underlying multi-method inquiry. QDR is the only repository of its kind in the US – dedicated specifically to curating and archiving qualitative data and attuned to the requirements and concerns of qualitative researchers, their materials, and sources. – 11/2021

GSA 2021 Annual Scientific Meeting – ASI faculty and students will be presenting their work at the 2021 Gerontological Society of America Conference. To see a list of the sessions, click here. – 11/2021

CAPS Annual Conference – The 2021 CAPS Visiting Scholar is Courtney Boen, Assistant Professor and Axilrod Faculty Fellow, Department of Sociology, University of Pennsylvania, “The Scars of Legal Violence: Immigration Policy, Surveillance, and Enforcement and Population Health Inequality” – 10/2021

ASI Seminar – AHN Cluster: Faculty Flash Talks
Join us to meet the new Aging, Health, and Neuroscience (AHN) Cluster Faculty Affiliates.
– Katie Kidwell, Assistant Professor of Psychology – “Interactions of Health Behaviors in Adolescents and Young Adults”
– Asif Salekin, Assistant Professor of Electrical Engineering & Computer Science – “Ubiquitous and human-centric computing”
– Jillian Scheer, Assistant Professor of Psychology – “Examining modifiable determinants of hazardous drinking among trauma-exposed sexual and gender minority populations: Implications for treatment”
– Jeff Zemla, Assistant Professor of Psychology – “Understanding cognitive changes in aging adults using computational models”  – 10/2021

CAPS Seminar – Tyson Brown, Associate Professor of Sociology, Duke University and Patricia Homan, Assistant Professor of Sociology, Florida State University, “Measurement and Health Consequences of Structural Racism, Sexism, and Intersectionality” 

CAPS Seminar – Ellen Meara, Professor of Health Economics and Policy, Harvard T. H. Chan School of Public Health, “Rising Geographic Disparities in U.S. Mortality” (joint with Ben Couillard, Chris Foote, Kavish Gandhi, Jon Sinner) – 9/2021

Grant Awards

Woosang Hwang (PI) and Merril Silverstein (Co-PI) have been awarded a $21,000 grant from The Academy of Korean Studies Foundation. The project is titled: “Intergenerational Solidarity with Digital Communication among Korean Adult Children and Older Parents: Associations with Mental Health during the COVID-19 Pandemic.” – 1/2021

Congratulations to ASI faculty associates Scott Landes and Jun Li, who both received research support from the Appleby-Mosher Fund. – 1/2021

Shannon Monnat is the PI on a grant for $100,000 awarded by the Mother Cabrini Health Foundation to the Lerner Center for Public Health Promotion. The Project is titled: “Implementing Plans of Safe Care for Pregnant Women with Substance Use Disorders.” The Lerner Center will partner with Crouse Hospital to provide education and outreach to increase health and social service provider knowledge about the purpose, benefits, and components of Plans of Safe Care (POSC) and increase provider commitment to and uptake of POSC across New York State. – 12/2021

Shannon Monnat Awarded NIH Grant to Study Impacts of COVID-19 Mitigation Policies on Psychological Health, Drug Overdose, and Suicide in the U.S.
Shannon Monnat is the Principle Investigator on a new U01 grant awarded by the National Institute on Drug Abuse titled: “States’ COVID-19 Mitigation Policies and Psychological Health, Drug Overdose, and Suicide among U.S. Adults.” Jennifer Karas Montez, Doug Wolf, Emily Wiemers, and David Wheeler (Virginia Commonwealth University) are co-investigators on the project. This 5-year $1.95 million project will identify how the policies U.S. states enacted to combat the spread and adverse effects of COVID-19 may have affected psychological health and mortality from drug overdose and suicide among working age and older adults in both the immediate and longer terms. The project will provide novel large-scale data on adult COVID-19 experiences and wellbeing and use the variation in policy responses across states to shed light on which policies and combinations of policies are consequential for adult psychological health and related mortality, the mechanisms through which policies affect those outcomes, and the population subgroups that are disproportionately affected. – 9/2021

Emily Wiemers has received an NIH R03 Award – “Children’s Help to Aging Parents in the Face of Health and Economic Challenges from the COVID-19 Pandemic” – 9/2021

Catherine Garcia has received an NIH R01 Supplement Award – “Socioenvironmental influences on Health among Older Island Puerto Ricans” – 9/2021

Achievements 

Congratulations to ASI Post Doc Woosang Hwang on accepting a faculty position at Texas Tech! – 1/2021

Jennifer Karas Montez elected Treasurer for the Association of Population Centers
Montez will serve a 2-year term as Treasurer of the APC is a group of ~40 research centers, including CAPS, whose aims are to: (a) foster collaborative demographic research and data sharing, (b) translate basic population research for public policy decisionmakers, (c) provide educational and training opportunities in population studies, and (d) promote broader funding opportunities for population research. www.popcenters.org – 10/2021

Congratulations to Jennifer Karas Montez, who has been appointed as a University Professor in recognition of her national and international leadership in the field of population health. – 9/2021

Jun Li’s dissertation received an honorable mention for the 2021 PhD Dissertation Award from the Association for Public Policy Analysis and Management. – 9/2021

Publications

Xiaoyan Zhang and Shannon M. Monnat is SSM-Population HealthRacial/ethnic differences in clusters of adverse childhood experiences and associations with adolescent mental health – 1/2021

Claire Pendergrast, Amy Thierry, and Marc A. Garcia – Population Health Research Brief SeriesCOVID-19 Has Had Devastating Economic Impacts on Older Black and Latinx Adults – 12/2021

Kent Jason Cheng, Darcy Jones (DJ) McMaughan, and Matthew Lee Smith in Journal of Applied GerontologyThe Role of Optimism on the Relationship Between Activity Limitations and Life Satisfaction Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults in the United States: A Growth Curve Model of Changes Over Time – 12/2021

Madonna Harrington Meyer, Sarah Reilly, and Julia M. Finan – Population Health Research Brief SeriesThe U.S. Should Expand Access to Dental Care for Older Adults – 12/2021

Colleen Heflin, Irma A. Arteaga, and Julia Stafford – Population Health Research Brief SeriesConsistent SNAP Participation Increases Preventative Health Care Visits for Infants – 12/ 2021

Merril Silverstein – Routledge Taylor  & Francis GroupAging Families in Chinese Society – 11/2021

J. Dalton Stevens, Margaret A. Turk, and Scott D. Landes in Annals of Physical and Rehabilitation MedicineCause of death trends among adults with and without cerebral palsy in the United States, 2013-2017 – 11/2021

Nina Kohn in The American Journal of BioethicsRealizing Supported Decision-Making: What it Does-and Does Not-Require – 11/2021

Andrew London – Population Health Research Brief SeriesHow are Parental and Sibling Military Service Related to Adolescent Depression and Mental Health Service  Use? – 10/2021

Andrew S. London in SSM – Population Health Depression and mental health service use among 12-17 year old U.S. adolescents: Associations with current parental and sibling military service – 10/2021

Jennifer R. Piazza, Scott D. Landes, and Robert S. Stawski in Journal of Traumatic StressAge Differences in Allostatic Load among Veterans: The Importance of Combat Exposure – 10/2021

Arlene Kanter in Cornell Law Review – Remote Work and the Future of Disability Accommodations – 10/2021

Claire Pendergrast and Yue Sun – Population Health Research Brief SeriesOlder Adult Vaccination Rates Lag in Rural Areas and the South – 10/2021

Anna Wiersma Strauss in Perspectives on Public Management and GovernanceUntangling Public Values: Incorporating Regime Values to Advance Research and Practice – 10/2021

Scott D. Landes, Janet M. Wilmoth, Andrew S. London, and Ann T. Landes in Armed Forces & SocietyRisk Factors Explaining Military Deaths from Suicide, 2008-2017: A Latent Class Analysis – 9/2021

Yue Sun and Shannon M. Monnat in The Journal of Rural HealthRural-Urban and Within-Rural Differences in COVID-19 Vaccination Rates – 9/2021

Woosang Hwang, Jeung Hyun Kim, Maria T. Brown, and Merril Silverstein in Journal of Family PsychologyAre filial eldercare norms related to intergenerational solidarity with older parents? A typological development approach – 9/2021

Marc A. Garcia, David F. Warner, Catherine Garcia, Brian Downer, and Mukaila Raji in Innovation in AgingAge Patterns in Self-Reported Cognitive Impairment among Older Latino Subgroups and Non-Latino Whites in the U.S., 1997 to 2018: Implications for Public Health Policy – 9/2021

Jennifer Karas Montez, Mark D. Hayward, and Anna Zajacova in Journal of Health and Social BehaviorTrends in U.S. Population Health: The Central Role of Policies, Politics, and Profits – 9/2021

Tiago Barreira is co-author of a series of publications that looks at the relationship between cadence (steps/day) and energy expenditure in the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity.
Cadence (steps/min) and intensity during ambulation in 6-20 year olds: The CADENCE-kids study
Walking cadence (steps/min) and intensity in 21-40 year olds: CADENCE-adults 
Walking cadence (steps/min) and intensity in 41 to 60 year-old adults: The CADENCE-adult study 
Walking cadence (steps/min) and intensity in 61-85-year-old adults: the CADENCE-adults study – 9/2021

Marc A. Garcia and Claire Pendergrast in Public Health PostThe Devastating Toll of Structural Racism – 9/2021

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) has published its report Implications for Behavioral and Social Research of Preclinical Markers of Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. – 9/2021

Colleen Heflin, Michah W. Rothbart, Mattie Mackenzie-Liu – Population Health Research Brief Series – Strengthening SNAP and TANF is Essential to Support Children in Early Childhood – 9/2021

Mical Raz and Doron Dorfman in JAMA Health ForumBans of COVID-19 Mask Requirements vs Disability Accommodations -9/2021

Doron Dorfman in The Washington PostStudents with disabilities could sue their schools to require masks – 9/2021

In the News 

Scott Landes discussed vaccines for those aiding people with IDD in the LAist article, “People with Developmental Disabilities Want Their Home Health Workers Vaccinated.” – 9/2021

In Memoriam

Professor Emeritus Vernon Greene of the Public Administration and International Affairs department passed away on October 10, 2021. Vernon was a political scientist by training with fields in public policy and law and econometrics (Indiana University, 1978). He taught at the University of Arizona from 1978 – 1985 before coming to Syracuse University as an Associate Professor in 1986. Vernon was promoted to Professor in 1982 and retired in 2018. He was the director of the All-University Gerontology Center (1988-1993), the longtime director of the Social Sciences PhD program (2004 – 2017), served as editor in chief of The Gerontologist (1997 – 2000) and was the President of the National Academy of Aging (1991 – 1994) among many other distinguished professional and scholarly accomplishments. https://obits.syracuse.com/us/obituaries/syracuse/name/vernon-greene-obituary?id=30410225  – 10/2021