Departmental Affiliations
Lauren Parker, PhD, MPH, examines how home-and-community based supports address the cultural needs of Black and Hispanic caregivers.
Research Interests
Psychosocial stress; lifecourse; minority health; caregiving; Alzheimer's disease and related disorders
Experiences & Accomplishments
Dr. Lauren J. Parker is an Associate Scientist in the Department of Health, Behavior and Society at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Her research examines how home-and-community based supports can be used to address the cultural needs of African American and Hispanic caregivers for people with dementia. With funding from the National Institute on Aging (NIA), she examines the influence of adult day services on physiological and psychosocial stressors for African American caregivers. This emerging line of research integrates both biological and psychosocial indicators of stress. Another area of scholarly interest is to disseminate and implement culturally tailored stress-reduction interventions into real world settings. A such, previously served as the Co-Investigator on two NIA-funded research studies to culturally adapt the Adult Day Service (ADS) Plus program for Spanish-speaking and African American caregivers.
Dr. Parker also serves on the Leadership Core/Health Equity Task Force of the Center for Disease Control Building Our Largest Dementia (BOLD) Infrastructure, Public Health Center of Excellence (PHCOE) in Dementia Caregiving at the University of Minnesota. She also serves on the Research Committee of the National Adult Day Service Association. Dr. Parker completed her post-doctoral training at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. She earned a Dual-title PhD in Gerontology and Health Promotion at Purdue University in 2014.
Honors & Awards
2021 NIA K01 Mentored Research Scientist Development Award
2020 NIMHD Loan Repayment Program Recipient
2019 SOURCE Service-Learning Faculty Fellows Program, Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, MD
2018 Alzheimer’s Association Travel Award to attend the African American Participation in AD
Research: Effective Strategies Workshop. Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. Saint
Louis, MO
2018 National Institute of Aging Butler Williams Scholars Program
Select Publications
Select publications
Parker, L. J., Marx, K. A., Nkimbeng, M., Johnson, E., Koeuth, S., Gaugler, J. E., & Gitlin, L. N. (2023). It’s more than language: Cultural adaptation of a proven dementia care intervention for Hispanic/Latino caregivers. The Gerontologist, 63(3), 558-567.
Parker, L. J., & Gitlin, L. N. (2021). Does adult day service use improve well-being of Black caregivers of people living with dementia?. Innovation in Aging, 5(4), igab037.
Gaugler, J. E., Borson, S., Epps, F., Shih, R. A., Parker, L. J., & McGuire, L. C. (2023). The intersection of social determinants of health and family care of people living with Alzheimer's disease and related dementias: A public health opportunity. Alzheimer's & Dementia, 19(12), 5837-5846.
Nkimbeng, M. J., & Parker, L. J. (2021). Diverse, culturally rich approaches to family care in the United States. In Bridging the Family Care Gap (pp. 43-69). Academic Press.
Sadarangani, T., Zagorski, W., Parker, L.J., & Missaelides, L. (2021). Identifying Research Priorities in Adult Day Centers to Support Evidence-Based Care of Vulnerable Older Adults. Progress in Community Health Partnerships: Research, Education, and Action, 15(1), 127-131.