Louise is a field-leading expert in the areas of perceived social isolation (loneliness) and health during aging. At NORC, she leads research and analyses centered on identification of factors that increase risk for loneliness and the types of interventions that offer some benefit to lonely people. Her publications include more than 100 peer-reviewed articles and book chapters.
Louise acts as a co-investigator on the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project (NSHAP), a National Institute on Aging funded panel study of health and social factors among older adults in the United States. Additionally, she is the Principal Investigator of NSHAP’s COVID-19 supplemental study, which ran from 2020 to 2021.
Louise is a member of the Gerontological Society of America and the American Society on Aging, and serves on the editorial board of Research on Aging and Social Science & Medicine. She is an international speaker and served as an expert witness for the solitary confinement case, Ashker v. Governor of California, 2015. Louise is a founding member of the International Loneliness and Isolation Research Network (ILINK), and a member of the Scientific Advisory Committee for the Foundation for Social Connection.
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Education
PhD
The Ohio State University
MA
The Ohio State University
BA
Bethel College, KS
Project Contributions
Publications
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opens in new tab"Home Alone Together: Differential Links between Momentary Contexts and Real-Time Loneliness among Older Adults from Chicago during Versus before the COVID-19 Pandemic."
Journal Article | July 18, 2022
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opens in new tab"Loneliness from Young Adulthood to Old Age: Explaining Age Differences in Loneliness."
Journal Article | July 8, 2022
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opens in new tab"Age Differences in Mental Health from May through August 2020 among U.S. Adults: Trajectories and the Role of Pandemic, Lifestyle, and Social Factors."
Journal Article | July 1, 2022
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opens in new tab"Loneliness and Health."
Journal Article | June 21, 2022
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opens in new tab"Analyzing Birth Cohorts With the National Social Life, Health, and Aging Project."
Journal Article | February 7, 2022
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opens in new tab"Resilience and Social Support-Giving Scales: Conceptual and Empirical Validation."
Journal Article | January 13, 2022
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opens in new tab"Can Remote Social Contact Replace In-Person Contact to Protect Mental Health among Older Adults?"
Journal Article | December 2, 2021
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opens in new tab"Momentary Loneliness among Older Adults: Contextual Differences and their Moderation by Gender and Race/Ethnicity."
Journal Article | November 1, 2021