FSU Claude Pepper Center Director Dawn Carr will start her term on the Gerontological Society of America's board of directors Jan. 1, 2027. (College of Social Sciences and Public Policy)

Dawn C. Carr, director of Florida State University’s Claude Pepper Center and Mildred and Claude Pepper Professor of Sociology in the College of Social Sciences and Public Policy, has been elected to the board of directors of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), one of the world’s largest interdisciplinary organizations devoted to the study of aging.

Carr will begin her term Jan. 1. GSA’s more than 6,000 members include researchers, educators, clinicians and policy professionals working across disciplines to advance research, education, practice and policy related to aging.

“I’m honored to have the opportunity to serve GSA and contribute to an organization that has played such an important role in advancing the study of aging,” Carr said. “As our population ages, it is increasingly important that we bring together researchers and professionals across disciplines to better understand what helps people remain healthy, active and engaged throughout their lives.”

Carr’s research focuses on identifying factors that help older adults remain healthy and active as long as possible. Over the past decade, she has studied the connections between health and active engagement in the second half of life, including how employment, retirement, volunteering, caregiving, social relationships and major health events affect health and well-being.

Her recent research also examines how early-life experiences and exposures can affect outcomes later in life and how psychological resources can help people remain resilient as they age.

As director of the Claude Pepper Center, Carr leads a center dedicated to advancing research and policy aimed at improving the lives of older adults. The center focuses on issues affecting older people and their families and works with policymakers, agencies and researchers to promote evidence-based policymaking.

Founded in 1945, GSA brings together experts from a range of disciplines involved in the study of aging. The organization’s work spans biological, medical, behavioral and social research as well as education, practice and public policy.

Carr joined FSU in 2016. Before coming to Florida State, she was a researcher at the Stanford Center on Longevity, a postdoctoral fellow in the Carolina Program for Health and Aging Research at the Institute on Aging at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a researcher at the Scripps Gerontology Center.