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People

Faculty

Jacqui Smith

Jacqui Smith

Research Professor, Survey Research Center - Professor of Psychology, College of Literature, Science, and the Arts - Research Professor, Research Center for Group Dynamics

Dr. Smith is a lifespan developmental and experimental psychologist. Her research focuses on age- and health-related changes in subjective well-being, self-related beliefs, and cognition in midlife and old age and the effects of early-life experiences on late-life outcomes. She combines experimental laboratory studies with survey research to investigate questions about profiles of healthy aging and life quality in midlife, the young old, and the oldest-old. She is a Co-PI of the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) and PI of a project on experienced well-being in midlife and old age. She teaches courses on the psychology of aging, lifespan cognition, and theories of development across the lifespan.

Curriculum vitae

Lindsay Ryan

Lindsay Ryan

Assistant Research Scientist

Lindsay H. Ryan is an Assistant Research Scientist at the University of Michigan’s Survey Research Center. She received her Ph.D. in 2008 from the Pennsylvania State University in Human Development and Family Studies. Dr. Ryan is an investigator on several ongoing research projects, all of which involve an interest in better measuring and understanding the processes by which adults change over the life course. Her research interests include individual and contextual influences on subjective well-being, physical health, and cognition across adulthood, with a particular focus on the impact of social relations. Dr. Ryan uses her expertise in longitudinal and survey research in multiple projects, including ongoing work with the Health and Retirement Study, serving as a Michigan-site PI on the LongROAD Study of older drivers, and as the PI on a study to develop and test a new measure of experiences of gratitude in older adults.

Curriculum vitae

Kimson Johnson

Research Fellow

Kimson Johnson is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Psychosocial Aging Group at the Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan. Dr. Johnson received her joint PhD in Health Management and Policy and Sociology from the University of Michigan in 2023. Her doctoral research examined how individual and contextual adverse life experiences impact cognitive functioning across the life course in diverse racial and ethnic populations. Currently, her research focuses on the impact of early life environments on cardiovascular and cognitive health and aging throughout the life course among diverse sociodemographic populations of older adults.

Curriculum vitae

Post Doctoral &
Graduate Students

Mary Beth Ofstedal

Research Fellow

Mary Beth Ofstedal is a demographer whose work focuses on population aging.  She is a Research Scientist Emerita at the Institute for Social Research, where she served as a Co-Investigator and Associate Director on the Health and Retirement Study prior to her retirement.  Her research interests include intergenerational relations and support, the connections between socioeconomic status and health, transitions in health and functioning in old-age, methodological issues relating to panel surveys, and comparative research.

Curricumlum vitae

Amanda Sonnega

Research Scientist

Amanda Sonnega, PhD, is a Research Scientist in the Survey Research Center of the Institute for Social Research (ISR) at the University of Michigan (UM), where she is responsible for integrating communication, outreach, and education efforts for the Health and Retirement Study. She received her doctorate through the Department of Health, Behavior, and Society at the Johns Hopkins University and completed a postdoctoral fellowship within the ISR program in Social Environment and Health. Dr. Sonnega has lectured in the UM School of Public Health on psychosocial factors in health-related behavior. Her research focuses on life course trajectories of physical and mental health; institutional and personal factors associated with vulnerability and resilience in aging individuals; and work transitions and their broad effects on health and well-being.

Curriculum vitae

Current GRSA

Wenqing Qian

Annie Cohen

Qize Chen

Program Administrator

 

Aneesa Buageila

Aneesa Buageila

Research Administrator Senior

Aneesa Buageila is a Research Process Coordinator with the Health and Retirement Study at the Institute for Social Research. Aneesa has worked with the program since 2007.

Research Staff

 

Marina Larkina

Marina Larkina

Data Analyst

Marina Larkina is a Data Analyst at the Psychosocial Aging Group at the Institute for Social Research. Marina received her PhD in Child Psychology from the Institute of Child Development at the University of Minnesota in 2008. Previously, she was a research associate at the Department of Psychology at Emory University, investigating autobiographical memory in children and adults. Marina provides statistical support to the research team on a number of ongoing collaborative projects that involve the analysis of survey, focus group, and experimental data on subjective wellbeing, retirement, and health in older adults.

Curriculum vitae

We have worked with some amazing people, from our research assistants to our faculty. Many of our graduate students have found rewarding positions at top programs and institutions across the country and throughout the world.