Dr. Mary Elizabeth (Libbey) Bowen is a Program Director with interests in health equity and how social determinants of health affect life course trajectories and health outcomes. As a social gerontologist, Dr. Bowen’s program of research focused on maintaining the physical and cognitive function of vulnerable older adults across care settings and in the community. She utilized sensor technology methods and measures to continuously monitor health for early signals of changes in functioning amenable to intervention and significantly advanced the science in the area of predictive health analytics.
Dr. Bowen received her PhD in sociology, with a specialization in population health and aging, from Virginia Tech. Following her doctoral work, she completed an AHRQ-funded postdoctoral fellowship in health disparities at the Institute of Gerontology at Wayne State University and a patient-safety fellowship at the James A. Haley Veterans Hospital. Prior to joining NINR, Dr. Bowen served as a research scientist in the Department of Veterans Affairs, most recently at the Corporal Michael J. Crescenz Veterans Affairs Medical Center. During this time she also held a joint appointment as a tenured Associate Professor in the School of Nursing at the University of Delaware.