Deborah Carr

Deborah Carr is a member of the GDP Center Faculty Steering Committee and a Professor of Sociology at Boston University.

She is the inaugural Director of the Center of Innovation in Social Science, established in September 2021. 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. She has written extensively on death and dying, bereavement, family relationships over the life course and the stigma associated with health conditions including obesity and disability. She has published more than 100 articles and chapters, and several books. Carr is on the Board of Directors of the Population Association of America, and has served as chair of the sections on Aging & the Life Course and Medical Sociology of the American Sociological Association. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, a member of the honorary Sociological Research Association and the recipient of the 2022 Matilda White Riley Distinguished Scholar Award of the ASA Aging & Life Course section.