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NIA Postdoctoral Fellow at University of Southern California

• About

  Jennifer Ailshire is a sociologist and social demographer whose research addresses questions that lie at the intersections of social stratification, urban sociology, and the sociology of health and aging. In particular, her research focuses on the roles of the neighborhood environment and social relationships in determining health over the life course. A consistent theme throughout her work is an interest in gender, socioeconomic, racial, and ethnic inequality in health behaviors and outcomes. Current projects include research on social factors associated with poor sleep; neighborhood determinants of racial and ethnic disparities in obesity; associations between the neighborhood environment and disability, social participation, and cognition among older adults; psychosocial determinants of racial and ethnic disparities in diabetes and hypertension; unequal exposure to ambient air pollution and consequences for cognitive function and decline; and the social, psychosocial, and health correlates of exceptional longevity among U.S. adults. Dr. Ailshire is currently a NIA postdoctoral fellow in the Andrus School of Gerontology  and the Center for Biodemography and Population Health at the University of Southern California. She is also a National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities Scholar. She received her Ph.D. in Sociology, with training in Social Demography, from the University of Michigan in 2009.

• Education

  • Ph.D., University of Michigan, 2009
  • B.A., Arizona State University, 2003

• Research Areas of Interest

  • Health and Aging, Health Disparities, Neighborhoods, Social Demography, Quantitative Methods

• Dissertation Title

  • The Social Determinants of Adult Obesity

• Dissertation Chairs

  • James House (co-chair), Jeffrey Morenoff (co-chair), Renee Anspach, Sarah Burgard, and Ana Diez Roux (cognate, Epidemiology)