Maria T. Brown

Maria Brown
Associate Research Professor
Phone: 315.443.4685
Address: 307A Lyman Hall
Academic Program Area Focus: Social Work

Maria Brown is an Assistant Research Professor in the School of Social Work, and a 2008-2010 John A. Hartford Foundation Doctoral Fellow in Geriatric Social Work. She earned a Ph.D. from Syracuse University’s Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Her dissertation, entitled, “Psychiatric history and cognition trajectories in later life: variations by sex, race and ethnicity, and childhood disadvantage,” examined the relationship between psychiatric history and cognitive function in later life.

Brown is co-Investigator of the Genesis Health Project’s Empowering Black Pastors to Amplify Colorectal Cancer Prevention Messages in Underserved Communities (Principal Investigator: Luvenia W. Cowart), funded by a 2021-2022 grant from the Prevent Cancer Foundation.

She has published her research in Aging and Mental Health, Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect, Supportive Care in Cancer, Women & Health, the Health Education Journal, Gerontology, Research on Aging, Children & Youth Services Review, Journal of Family Issues, Journal of Gerontological Social Work, The Gerontologist, and the Journal of Sexuality Research and Social Policy. Dr. Brown is the author of a chapter on LGBT Lives and Military Service, in Life Course Perspectives on Military Service, and co-author of chapters on Chronic Illnesses and Conditions in Gender and Sexual Minorities (with Jane. A McElroy) in LGBT Health: Meeting the Health Needs of Gender and Sexual Minorities, Addressing Behavioral Cancer Risks from a LGBT Health Equity Perspective (with Karen Fredriksen-Goldsen and Charles P. Hoy-Ellis) in Cancer and the LGBT Community: Unique Perspectives from Risk to Survivorship, and Gerontological Social Work (with Deborah J. Monahan), in Gerontology: Perspectives and Issues. A social gerontologist who uses the life course perspective to research the later-life experiences of socioeconomically disadvantaged individuals, women, and racial, ethnic, and sexual minorities, Dr. Brown is also interested in dementia caregiving, the long-term care experiences of cognitively disabled older adults and their caregivers, and the treatment and survivorship experiences of breast cancer patients.

Education

  • Ph.D., Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University
  • M.S.W., School of Social Work, Syracuse University
  • M.A., Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, Syracuse University

Research & Scholarship

Later-life experiences of socioeconomically disadvantaged adults, women, and racial and ethnic minorities; long-term care experiences of cognitively disabled older adults; social supports for caregivers of older adults; later-life experiences of cancer survivors, particularly sexual minority women; LGBTQ health, aging and population research.