Maxwell School sociology faculty members lead research teams that were recently awarded R24 grants from the National Institute on Aging, a division of the National Institutes of Health. Jennifer Karas Montez, professor of sociology, is a co-principal investigator, and Shannon Monnat, associate professor of sociology and Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion, is a co-investigator on the first of these highly competitive five-year grants. Monnat is also a co-principal investigator on the second grant. NIA’s overall, five-year funding for the two projects is anticipated to be approximately $1.9M and $1.7M, respectively, to be shared across the multiple institutions involved in the projects. 

The first grant is a renewal of funding for Network on Life Course Health Dynamics and Disparities in 21st Century America. The purpose of this network is to stimulate research, disseminate data and analytic resources, and create a better understanding of trends and disparities in U.S. adult health — specifically, longevity across the life course and across different geographic contexts. Other collaborators include Robert Hummer and Barbara Entwisle (UNC Chapel Hill), Sarah Burgard (University of Michigan), and Jennifer Ailshire and Julie Zissimopoulos (University of Southern California).

The second grant creates a new Interdisciplinary Network on Rural Population Health and Aging. This network will seek a better understanding of rural health and aging trends and the factors affecting and being affected by these trends. It will bring together a multidisciplinary group of scientists to study and identify gaps, stimulate new research, and develop and disseminate training materials and analytic resources on rural population health and aging. Monnat’s collaborators include principal investigator Leif Jensen (Pennsylvania State University), along with Martin Sliwinski (Pennsylvania State University), Lori Hunter (Colorado University, Boulder), and John Green (University of Mississippi). Monnat discussed the project in the USAgNet article "Aging in Rural American Focus of New Research Network."

Montez is the Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies at Syracuse University. She specializes in social demography, social and political determinants of health, and spatial patterns in mortality.

Monnat is the Lerner Chair for Public Health Promotion. She specializes in social demography, social determinants of health and health disparities, spatial differences in morbidity and mortality, inequality, and social stratification.

Montez and Monnat also co-direct the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab in the Aging Studies Institute.

The National Institute on Aging, one of the 27 institutes and centers of the National Institutes of Health, leads a broad scientific effort to understand the nature of aging, and to extend the healthy, active years of life. The R24 mechanism funds infrastructural support to stimulate research on high priority areas related to aging and health.

10/11/19