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Center for Studies in Demography and Ecology

CSDE Spotlight: Deven Hamilton

Deven Hamilton is a Research Scientist at CSDE. Devin’s training and research experience makes him a great end-to-end consultant for projects related to infectious disease transmission dynamics, social network analysis, agent-based network models as well as general quantitative methods. He holds a PhD in Sociology from UW, an MPH in Epidemiology from Emory University, and has extensive research and methods expertise in HIV/AIDS, STI, network analysis and network epidemiology. His research on HIV/AIDs and network models has been published in Annals of Epidemiology, PLOS One, American Journal of Public Health, Epidemics, AIDS and Behavior, Journal of Adolescent Health, to name just a few of his recent works. Dr. Hamilton’s current collaborations include serving as site PI on a CDC-funded five-year cooperative agreement, as well as a Co-Investigator and area expert on multiple NIH funded projects, with the goal of designing and building modeling tools to further our understanding of HIV/STI transmission in different domestic and international populations and contexts. Dr. Hamilton also recently spent 6 weeks working with the Washington State Emergency Operations Center as part of the State’s early COVID-19 response.

 

CSDE Trainee Spotlight: Callie Freitag

Callie Freitag is a CSDE Trainee and doctoral student in UW’s Evans School of Public Policy & Governance and advised by CSDE Affiliate and Primary Research Area Chair for Wellbeing of Families and Households Heather Hill. Callie’s research focuses on how policy contexts throughout the life course influence poverty and inequality in later life. She leads “Aging Across UW – Third Thursdays”, an informal working group at UW with particular focus on aging research and the COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, Freitag co-authored a report titled “Caring for Washington’s Older Adults in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Interviews with Organization Leaders About the State of Social and Healthcare Services”, along with CSDE Affiliates Scott Allard (Evans School), Clara Berridge (Social Work) and others in UW Schools of Medicine, Social Work, and Public Health. She is a recipient of the Graduate School’s UWRA Patricia Dougherty Fellowship in Aging, which she will use to work on a dissertation proposal related to poverty and material hardship in later life. Prior to starting her doctoral training, she worked as a policy analyst at the County Welfare Directors Association of California (CWDA), where she led advocacy efforts to establish Home Safe, a grant program to prevent homelessness among older adults. She also worked as a policy analyst on aging and long-term care issues for California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office.

CSDE Affiliates Berridge, Allard, Freitag, and Co-Authors Publish Report on COVID-19 and Older Adults

CSDE Affiliates Clara Berridge and Scott Allard, along with CSDE Trainee Callie Freitag and collaborators from UW Medicine, Public Health and Social Welfare recently co-authored a report titled “Caring for Washington’s Older Adults in the COVID-19 Pandemic: Interviews with Organization Leaders About  The State of Social and Healthcare Services”. The qualitative study, funded by a UW Population Health Initiative grant, is the result of interviews with leaders of nearly four dozen organizations around the state during July and August — just as COVID-19 cases spiked, many lockdown restrictions remained in place, and the social and physical effects of the first few months of quarantines became apparent. The authors find that the COVID-19 pandemic has increased social isolation among older adults, primarily due to their higher susceptibility to the disease and the restrictions that encourage them to stay put, with few, if any visitors. Many communities — low-income older adults; Black, Indigenous and people of color; those with limited English proficiency; and those experiencing homelessness — are at risk of being overlooked and underserved. Also, the “digital divide,” or lack of Internet access or devices such as phones and laptops, has widened among older adults. To read UW News coverage, click here.

UWRA Lecture Series “The Future of Aging”

The UW Retirement Association and UW Alumni Association are co-sponsoring a symposium titled the “Future of Aging”, from November 10th – 19th. There will be a series of lectures and conversations centered on how this newest generation of older adults is forever altering the aging experience. The lecture series will feature PAA President Dr. Eileen Crimmins (Univ. of Southern California) on 11/10 speaking about Aging in the 21st Century: New Issues in a New World, as well as lectures by CSDE Affiliate Karen Fredriksen Goldsen (11/12), CSDE Director Sara Curran (11/17), and Eric Larson, Senior Investigator, Kaiser Permanente Washington Health Research Institute (11/19). Graduate students will be featured throughout the program. For more information, please visit the UWRA webpage, or view the flyer for this event.