Associate Research Professor, School of Social Work, Falk College of Sport & Human Dynamics
Faculty Associate, Aging Studies Institute
Faculty Affiliate, Center for Aging and Policy Studies
Biography:
Maria Brown is an Associate Research Professor in the David B. Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, and a 2008-2010 John A. Hartford Foundation Doctoral Fellow in Geriatric Social Work. She earned her Ph.D. from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Her dissertation, entitled, “Psychiatric history and cognition trajectories in later life: variations by sex, race and ethnicity, and childhood disadvantage,” examined the relationship between psychiatric history and cognitive function in later life. Brown is co-Investigator of the Genesis Health Project’s Improving Financial Wellness among African Americans through Financial Literacy Education: Advancing Health Equity in Underserved Communities (Principal Investigator: Luvenia W. Cowart), funded by a 2022-2023 grant from the New York State Department of Health. She has published her research in the Journal of Applied Gerontology, Aging and Mental Health, Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, Supportive Care in Cancer, Women & Health, the Health Education Journal, Gerontology, Research on Aging, Children & Youth Services Review, Journal of Marriage and Family, Journal of Family Issues, Family Process, Applied Research in Quality of Life, Journal of Gerontological Social Work, The Gerontologist, and the Journal of Sexuality Research and Social Policy. Dr. Brown is the author of a chapter on LGBT Lives and Military Service, in Life Course Perspectives on Military Service, and co-author of chapters on Chronic Illnesses and Conditions in Gender and Sexual Minorities (with Jane. A McElroy) in LGBT Health: Meeting the Health Needs of Gender and Sexual Minorities, Addressing Behavioral Cancer Risks from a LGBT Health Equity Perspective (with Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen and Charles P. Hoy-Ellis) in Cancer and the LGBT Community: Unique Perspectives from Risk to Survivorship, and Gerontological Social Work (with Deborah J. Monahan), in Gerontology: Perspectives and Issues. A social gerontologist who uses the life course perspective to research the later-life experiences of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals, women, and racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities, Dr. Brown is also interested in intergenerational family relationships, dementia caregiving, the long-term care experiences of cognitively disabled older adults and their caregivers, and the treatment and survivorship experiences of breast cancer patients.
Degree(s):
Ph.D., Social Science, Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 2010
M.S.W., School of Social Work, Syracuse University, 2010
M.A., Sociology, Maxwell School of Citizenship & Public Affairs, Syracuse University, 2005
B.S., Business Management, Ithaca College, 1987
