About

I am a life-course sociologist and social epidemiologist interested in positive aging processes. Much of my work aims to identify and understand the social factors experienced across the life course that influence the health and happiness of older adults, as well as to evaluate public policies and interventions that can improve their well-being and benefit society as a whole.

My current research agenda includes three threads: (1) assessing the impact of life-course statuses, transitions, and trajectories on a variety of health outcomes, from self-reports to physical measures and biomarkers; (2) understanding how individuals react to social contexts and public policies that they experience over the life course; and (3) improving our understanding of the challenges and opportunities posed by demographic change to aging-related policy throughout the world. My recent publications focus on the health effects of work and retirement, life satisfaction effects of unemployment and pension policy, as well as cultural and structural determinants of social security and health policy reforms worldwide.

I am currently engaged in a long-term “cells to society” project, studying patterns of alcohol consumption and cardiovascular health outcomes and mortality among older adults in more than 20 countries. I have received awards from the American Public Health Association, American Sociological Association, Gerontological Society of America, and Retirement Research Foundation.

I am the Director of the Society and Health Research Center and Dean Faculty of Social Science and Arts, at Universidad Mayor, Chile; Director Society and Health Research Center, Universidad Mayor, Chile; Director, Millennium Nucleus on SocioMedicine (SocioMed); Principal Investigator, Millennium Nucleus for the Evaluation and Analysis of Drug Policies (nDP); Adjunct Assistant Professor of Epidemiology at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health, and affiliated faculty to the Robert N. Butler Columbia Aging Center.