Michelle Putnam has been appointed editor-in-chief of Innovation in Aging, a journal published by the Gerontological Society of America. Her appointment is effective in January 2025.
Dr. Putnam currently serves as a professor, the Jennifer Eckert ’08 School of Social Work Chair, and director of the Ph.D. program in social work at Simmons University, a women’s undergraduate and co-ed graduate institution in Boston, Massachusetts. Earlier in her career, she was a faculty member in the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri.
As a scholar, Dr. Putnam focuses on the intersections of aging and disability, with particular emphasis on understanding how public programs and public policy meet the needs of people aging with disability. Her research led her to co-founding the Bridging Aging and Disability International Network. She also served as editor-in-chief of the Journal of Gerontological Social Work from 2014 to 2020.
Dr. Putnam is a graduate of the University of Michigan, where she majored in history. She holds a master’s degree in gerontological studies from Miami University in Ohio and a Ph.D. in social welfare from the University of California, Los Angeles.