Jennifer Karas Montez

University Professor, Professor of Sociology, and Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies, Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs Link

Director, Center for Aging and Policy Studies
Faculty Associate, Aging Studies Institute
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Aging and Policy Studies
Senior Research Affiliate, Center for Policy Research

CAPS Biography:

My research contributes to CAPS signature theme of health and well-being and cross-cutting themes of policy, place, and specific populations. Specifically, my research investigates the troubling trends and growing disparities in adult mortality in the United States since the 1980s and the contribution of states’ policy contexts to the trends and disparities. A major focus of my work has been explaining why the trends differ by gender and why they have been particularly worrisome for socioeconomically disadvantaged populations (especially low-educated adults). To conduct this work, I draw on my interdisciplinary training in sociology, demography, public health, and statistics, which allows me to incorporate multiple approaches into my work. In addition, I collaborate with scholars across disciplines and institutions as part of multiple NIH-funded research projects. These research collaborations—particularly with public policy scholars and political scientists—have been crucial in developing new and innovative approaches to elucidating why adult mortality rates are increasingly disparate across education levels and geographic areas in the United States.