Jan Mutchler, PhD, is a professor of gerontology at the University of Massachusetts Boston and the founding director of its Center for Social and Demographic Research on Aging. In 2021, she was named director of the Gerontology Institute at the university’s John W. McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies.
Mutchler’s scholarship focuses on diversity, inequality, and disparities in aging, seeking to strengthen scholarship and its impact for our growing and diverse older population. She produces the national Elder Index, a one-of-a-kind, county-by-county measure of the income needed by older adults to maintain independence and meet their daily living costs while staying in their own homes.
Mutchler received a BA in sociology from the University of Mississippi, and an MA and PhD in sociology from the University of Texas Austin. In 2016, she received the UMass Boston Chancellor’s Award for Distinguished Service.