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Maria Brown, LMSW, is a fifth year CPR graduate student, and a 2008-2010 John A. Hartford Foundation Doctoral Fellow in Geriatric Social Work. Her dissertation, "Factors Affecting Cognitive Function in Later Life", examines the relationship between psychiatric history and cognitive function in later life, and attempts to show how gender, race/ethnicity, and early life disadvantage shape this relationship.

 Maria presented papers in 2009, at the American Sociological Association and at the American Geriatrics Society, and is slated to present at the 2009 meeting of the Gerontological Society of America.  In 2007 the Gerontological Society of America's Behavioral and Social Sciences (BSS) Section awarded Maria the 2007 BSS Student Research Award at the Pre-Dissertation level for her paper, "The Relationship Between Race, Parental Education, and Cognitive Function in Later Life." She has been published in the Encyclopedia of Health and Aging on the economics of aging (with Eric Kingson), and has a publication forthcoming in the Journal of Sexuality Research and Social Policy, on LGBT Aging and Rhetorical Silence (sole-authored).

 Maria earned a Bachelor's degree in business management from Ithaca College in 1987 and a Master's degree in social work from Syracuse University in 2005.  She is 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.  She is also interested in the long term care experiences of cognitively disabled older adults and their caregivers. Her primary advisor is The Gerontology Center Director, Janet Wilmoth.

 For more information or if you wish to contact Maria go to: http://cpr.maxwell.syr.edu/graddir.htm