Kathleen Cagney named new director of U-M’s Institute for Social Research

Kathleen Cagney

Kathleen Cagney, a professor of sociology and former deputy dean at the University of Chicago, has been appointed director of the College of Michigan’s Institute for Social Investigation.

Her appointment, productive Sept. 1, was accepted May possibly 20 by the Board of Regents. Cagney succeeds David Lam who will action down Aug. 31 and return to the school.

“Dr. Cagney has a lengthy-standing motivation to social science that is demanding, route-breaking, and serves the public interest,” claimed Susan Collins, U-M provost and govt vice president for educational affairs. “Taking a collaborative and interdisciplinary technique to the evaluation of social inequality, she has provided important insights into the job of social context in well being and aging.

“A considerate adopter of new investigate procedures and an experienced administrator fully commited to variety and inclusion, Dr. Cagney will be an helpful chief for ISR.”

Cagney’s research examines social inequality and its romance to overall health with a emphasis on community, race, and growing old and the lifetime study course. She has focused on bringing jointly researchers from several scientific disciplines and inspecting numerous datasets to make a a lot more holistic watch of the social atmosphere and its affect on well being and nicely-getting. Her operate has supplied a clearer see of how actual physical and social elements in encompassing neighborhoods and communities have an affect on personal behavior and outcomes.

“It is an honor to join ISR and a group of scholars who have shaped social science inquiry for around 70 a long time. My get the job done has surely benefited from the investigation and insights produced by ISR,” Cagney claimed. “I search forward to continuing the initiatives of David Lam, engaging in and amplifying the research systems I have extensive admired and creating new collaborations throughout the university.”

Cagney, who grew up in Michigan, gained a Bachelor of Arts in sociology and political science from Western Michigan College. She gained a Master’s in Public Plan from the University of Chicago, and a Ph.D. in overall health coverage and administration from Johns Hopkins College.

Currently, she is operating on two Chicago-based mostly scientific studies of neighborhood context and more mature grownup health, and is examining the purpose of the social and physical surroundings in more mature grownup perfectly-being with the Countrywide Social Lifetime, Wellness and Aging Project.

From 1997 to 1999, Cagney experienced a postdoctoral fellowship, sponsored by the Nationwide Institute on Growing older, in the Population Exploration Centre at NORC, College of Chicago. In August 1999, she joined the Office of Overall health Studies at the University of Chicago as an assistant professor and rose to associate professor. In July 2011, Cagney joined the Division of Sociology in which she rose to professor.

At the College of Chicago, Cagney at the moment holds the subsequent positions: faculty director of the Yuen Campus, Hong Kong director, Populace Exploration Middle director, Company for Health care Investigation and Quality Predoctoral and Postdoctoral Teaching Application co-director, Middle on the Demography and Economics of Getting old and college associate in the Section of Comparative Human Enhancement. From September 2017 to June 2020, she served as deputy dean in the Division of Social Sciences.

Considering the fact that 1996, Cagney has been the principal investigator, co-principal investigator, or co-investigator on 35 grants sponsored by businesses together with the National Institute on Getting older, Countrywide Science Basis, Facilities for Illness Manage and Prevention, Rockefeller Basis and Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

Her grants boost sustained investigation and infrastructure enhancement courses that leverage longitudinal details to look at how demographic and financial elements facilitate or suppress unique healthier aging behaviors. A single of her tasks, executed in partnership with the city of Chicago, created and deployed a persistent, versatile instrument that supports embedded sensing and cyberinfrastructure investigate, progress, and analysis.

Cagney just lately served as the president of the Association of Populace Facilities, as a member of the Governing administration and Public Affairs Committee of the APC, on the advisory board of the Community on Lifestyle Program Wellbeing Dynamics and Health Disparities, and on several NIH evaluate panels. At the University of Chicago, she has served as member or chair of advisory committees ranging from the growth of a sexual misconduct climate survey to urban architecture and structure to president and dean look for committees.