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NORC at the University Chicago

Linda Waite

Pronouns: She/Her

Senior Fellow & Director
The Bridge at NORC
Linda is a leader in social demography, aging, and well-being studies at the national level.

Linda is the principal investigator of the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a landmark longitudinal study of the health and social relationships of American older adults. Her work on the project has yielded groundbreaking knowledge about the sexual and social behavior of older adults.

Linda directs NORC’s Center on Demography and Economics of Aging, which provides support to more than 30 researchers working in the areas of social relationships, living arrangements, and family; the social context of aging; health care research; and biobehavioral pathways. The Center is supported by a grant from the National Institute on Aging.

Outside of NORC, Linda serves as the George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology and the Co-Director of the MD/PhD program in Medicine, the Social Sciences, and Aging at the University of Chicago.

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Expertise

Education

PhD

University of Michigan

MA

University of Michigan

BA

Michigan State University

Appointments & Affiliations

George Herbert Mead Distinguished Service Professor of Sociology

University of Chicago

Honors & Awards

MERIT Award | 2008

National Institutes of Health

Project Contributions

National Social Life, Health & Aging Project

A pioneering nationally representative study of the intersection between social and intimate relationships and healthy aging

Client:

National Institute on Aging

Sampling Strategies & Measure Development for the LGBT Aging Project

Honing methods and strategies to recruit and survey a nationally representative sample of older LGBT adults

Client:

National Institute on Aging

Publications

Research Library & Findings