Deborah Suzanne Carr

Deborah Carr is inaugural director of the Center of Innovation in Social Science and A&S Distinguished Professor of sociology at Boston University. She is a life course sociologist who uses survey data and quantitative methods to study social factors linked with health and well-being in later life. Her research and writing examines death, dying, end-of-life issues, and the impacts of social contexts including families, climate, and stress, on older adults’ health. Carr is principal investigator of the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1979 (NLSY79), and the author of several popular undergraduate sociology textbooks. Her 2019 book Golden Years? Social Inequality in Later Life received the Kalish Innovative Publication Award from the Gerontological Society of America. Her work has been funded by National Institutes of Health, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, RRF Foundation on Aging and other organizations. She regularly provides commentary on aging-related issues to media outlets including CNN and the New York Times.