Aloen L. Townsend is the Ralph S. and Dorothy P. Schmitt Professor of Social Work at the Mandel School, where she has served on the faculty since 2001. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Sociology and is a faculty associate in the University Center on Aging and Health.
Townsend’s research focuses on aging, caregiving and health. Her projects—many funded by the National Institute on Aging—have examined caregiving among middle-generation women, the impact of adult day services for families of older adults with dementia, and health and emotional distress in older married couples. In partnership with Hospice of the Western Reserve, she also developed a caregiver strain and resources tool for use during end-of-life care.
She teaches across master’s and doctoral programs, with courses on adult development, family systems, health and advanced quantitative methods. Her methodological expertise includes survey research, dyadic and longitudinal analyses, structural equation modeling and multilevel modeling.
Townsend is a Fellow of the Behavioral and Social Sciences Section of the Gerontological Society of America and has served in leadership roles for national aging and gerontology organizations. Her awards include the John S. Diekhoff Award for Distinguished Graduate Teaching, AGE-SW Leadership Award, OAGE Researcher of the Year and inclusion among the 100 Most Influential Contemporary Social Work Faculty.