Original press release by Rutgers School of Public Health
Mara Getz Sheftel, Ph.D. has joined the Rutgers School of Public Health’s Department of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy as an instructor. She is also a member of the Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research.
Sheftel is a sociologist and demographer who uses a life course perspective to study new drivers of stratification for aging adults in three domains:
She has an interdisciplinary background spanning sociology, demography, public policy, and international studies. Her research is aimed at informing policies and services to improve population health and functioning for older adults.
“Dr. Sheftel’s scholarship focuses on the impact of workforce participation on health disparities,” says Paul Duberstein, chair of the Department of Health Behavior, Society, and Policy at the Rutgers School of Public Health. “As a sociologist and demographer with interests in immigration and population aging, we expect that she will contribute to our growing program in population aging and to our highly ranked degree program in social and behavioral health sciences. We are delighted that we were able to recruit Dr. Sheftel to the Rutgers School of Public Health.”
Currently, Sheftel is a co-investigator on a National Institute on Aging (NIA) R01 (PI: Jennifer Van Hook, Penn State) investigating how immigrant legal status exposures impact the health and wellbeing of older (50+) Latino immigrants.
Her scholarship has been published in Demography, Population Research & Policy Review, The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, and Socius among other peer-reviewed publications.
With a background in mentorship and service-learning, Sheftel is an experienced and enthusiastic educator. She is also part of the scientific leadership team of the New Jersey Population Health Cohort Study and the Center for State Health Policy within the Institute for Health.
“We are thrilled to welcome Dr. Mara Sheftel to our team at the Center for State Health Policy. She brings a wealth of expertise in health and aging research, and we are confident that her contributions will enhance our research efforts at Rutgers,” says Joel Cantor, Distinguished Professor of Public Policy and director of the Rutgers Center for State Health Policy. “Dr. Sheftel’s innovative approach to addressing the complex needs of immigrant communities will also greatly benefit the mission of the New Jersey Population Health Cohort Study.”
“I am honored to join the faculty, staff, and students in the Rutgers School of Public Health and contribute to a school so aligned with my overall goal to improve population health and reduce health disparities among older adults,” says Sheftel. “I am thrilled to join an interdisciplinary school and collaborate with scholars and students from diverse fields applying social science theories to public health issues.”
Sheftel received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the CUNY Graduate Center. Prior to joining Rutgers, she was a postdoctoral scholar at the Population Research Institute at Pennsylvania State University working in the Crossnational Aging Research Lab.