Lauren Brown

About

Dr. Lauren Leigh Brown is an Assistant Professor and Gerontologist whose research centers around the biopsychosocial processes of aging. Her work uses publicly available data to understand the unique difficulties Black Americans face in maintaining physical and psychological well-being as they age. Focusing on the complex interplay between stress and health, her approach aims to reframe the Black disadvantage narrative in health and aging, highlighting the heterogeneity in how Black older adults observe their stress burdens and adapt. Her research challenges traditional methods and frameworks used to study older Black adults by acknowledging the resourcefulness, coping, and agency Black people employ to reach older ages. Dr. Brown's teaching philosophy emphasizes the value of statistics and quantitative methods in combination with community-based, publicly available data to create measurable change in the lives of Black people. She teaches courses on Racism, Inequality and Aging Societies, Introduction to Health Data Analyses, and courses that aim to destigmatize S.T.E.M. for diverse student populations, ensuring the visibility of Black and Brown people via data and storytelling.

Research topics

• History
• Art
• Literature
• Sociology
• Geography

Selected publications

• The Effects of Midlife Acute and Chronic Stressors on Black–White Differences in Cognitive Decline

  The Journals of Gerontology Series B · 2023-10-03 · 10 citations

  articleOpen access

  OBJECTIVES: Midlife stressors may be particularly consequential for cognitive performance and disparities in cognitive decline. This study examined Black-White differences in trajectories of cognition among middle-aged adults and the effects of acute and chronic stressors on these trajectories. METHODS: Data come from 4,011 cognitively healthy individuals aged 51-64 (620 Black and 3,391 White) who participated in the 2006-2018 waves of the Health and Retirement Study. Stressors included a count…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• Black Older Adults in the Age of Biomarkers, Physical Functioning, and Genomics: Heterogeneity, Community Engagement, and Bioethics.

  PubMed · 2021-01-01 · 2 citations

  articleOpen access1st authorCorresponding

  There are persistent disparities in all-cause mortality between Blacks and Whites in the United States. Black Americans also carry the greatest burden of morbidity from different diseases of aging including heart disease, stroke, hypertension, type 2 diabetes, and certain types of cancer. Health disparities research, and particularly race/ethnic comparison studies of physical health and aging, have consistently positioned Black health in frameworks of disadvantage, suggesting that regardless of…

  PublisherOA PDF

• Working Through It: Lifetime Experiences of Employment Discrimination Among Older Black Americans and Implications for Labor Force Participation, Job Dissatisfaction, and Mental Health in Older Adulthood

  Journal of Aging and Health · 2024-06-17 · 1 citations

  articleOpen accessSenior authorCorresponding

  Objectives To examine lifetime experiences of employment discrimination and their association with Black older adults’ employment status and well-being. Methods We use data from the Health and Retirement Study’s leave-behind questionnaire to characterize lifetime experiences of being unfairly fired, not hired, or not promoted among Black older adults ( N = 2331) and test associations with labor force status at age 62, job satisfaction among those working, and depressive symptoms. Results Employm…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

• “Rest of the folks are tired and weary”: The impact of historical lynchings on biological and cognitive health for older adults racialized as Black

  Social Science & Medicine · 2024-11-22 · 1 citations

  articleOpen access

  Childhood structural racism may lead to poorer health and longevity for individuals racialized as Black. Racism-related stress cumulatively taxes the body resulting in worsening biological and cognitive health. This study examines the association between state-level exposure to historical lynchings (adverse childhood racism for modern older adults), with C-reactive protein (CRP, a marker of systemic inflammation), and global cognitive performance (modified TICS). We linked the percentage of lync…

  PublisherDOI

• Cardiometabolic health, nativity status and cognition among Latinos in the Health and Retirement Study

  Innovation in Aging · 2025-12-01

  articleOpen accessSenior author

  Abstract Cardiometabolic disease increases dementia risk for older adults. Latinos face a higher burden of cardiometabolic risk factors than their white counterparts. It is unclear how nativity or location of birth impacts the relationship between cardiometabolic disease and cognition among Latinos. Importantly, these are potentially modifiable factors that can reduce the risk of developing dementia later in life. This study examines cardiometabolic biomarkers among foreign-born and U.S. born La…

  PublisherOA PDFDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Susan Gubar

  1 shared

• Margaret Dalziel

  University of Waterloo

  1 shared

• Carolyn Wedin Sylvander

  1 shared

• Robert Felgar

  1 shared

• J. Landfear Lucas

  Universidade Estadual de Londrina

  1 shared

• Michael W. Peplow

  1 shared

• Marguerite Wyke

  1 shared

• Stuart M. Tave

  1 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Not provided in the HTML snippet

  Not provided in the HTML snippet

• Other, Public Health

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Similar researchers at University of Southern California

• Pinchas Cohenh-104
• Eileen Crimminsh-89
• Jennifer Ailshireh-37