Laura GITLIN

Laura N. Gitlin is an Applied Research Sociologist, and Intervention Scientist. She is Dean Emerita, and a Distinguished Professor in the College of Nursing and Health Professions at Drexel University. She is also the inaugural Executive Director of its AgeWell Collaboratory that oversees Drexel’s Age Friendly University international designation, and partners with community organisations serving diverse older adults and families.

She is also the Chief Scientific Officer of Plans4Care, Inc., a company she recently co-founded that is developing digital solutions to support individuals, family caregivers and health providers in providing person-centered care and nonpharmacological strategies to manage dementia-related symptoms and aging in place. With over 40 years of continuous National Institute on Health research support, she is nationally and internationally recognised for her home and community-based interventions for older adults and family caregivers. Many of her proven programmes have been translated, disseminated and implemented in diverse community-based and healthcare settings worldwide. She is the author or co-author of over 550 scientific publications including seven books. In 2025, she co-authored the Handbook of Intervention Science: From Design to Implementation published by Academic Press, which has been reviewed as “lifting intervention science to new heights”. A number of her measures and books have been translated into different languages and she is ranked internationally and nationally among the top social scientists.

She is the recipient of numerous awards, notably the 2011 John Mackey Award for Excellence in Dementia Care, from Johns Hopkins University, the 2014 M. Powell Lawton Award from the Gerontological Society of America. In 2015 she was named as an Honourary Fellow of the American Academy of Nursing. In 2017, she co-chaired the first National Research Summit on Care and Services for Persons Living with Dementia and their Caregivers which is now conducted by the National Institute on Aging bi-annually. More recently she served as a member of the international Lancet Commission on Dementia Care which has produced comprehensive reviews of preventive and treatment strategies widely cited worldwide.