Lenard W. Kaye, D.S.W., Ph.D

Dr. Lenard W. Kaye is Professor of Social Work, Immediate Past Director of the Center on Aging, and Past Interim Director of the Graduate School of Biomedical Science and Engineering at the University of Maine. A prolific writer in the fields of health and human services and aging, he has published approximately 200 journal articles and book chapters and 17 books on specialized topics in aging including older adult part-time work and the federal SCSEP initiative, social isolation and loneliness, home health care, productive aging, aging in rural America, family caregiving, controversial issues in aging, support groups for older women, and congregate housing. His research and writing on older men’s caregiving experiences and help-seeking behaviors, is widely recognized and frequently cited. His recent books include Social Isolation of Older Adults: Strategies to Bolster Health and Well-Being, Springer Publishing Company (2019) and the Handbook of Rural Aging, Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group (2021). Forthcoming books include: A Man’s Guide to Healthy Aging, 2nd ed. (Johns Hopkins Press), The Social Isolation and Loneliness Epidemic: Examining the Facts (Bloomsbury Academic Inc.), International Perspectives on Older Adult Social Isolation and Loneliness (Frontiers in Public Health) and Portraits in Tenacity: Aging in the Oldest State (University of Maine Press).

He is the past Co-Principal Investigator of The Mayer-Rothschild Foundation Designation of Excellence in Person-Centered Long-Term Care and currently the Lead Evaluator of AgingME2, Maine’s Geriatrics Workforce Development Program. His research and training projects have been funded through the National Institutes of Health/National Institute on Aging (NIH/NIA), Administration for Community Living/Administration on Aging (ACL/AoA), U.S.DHHS, Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA), and multiple national and regional foundations. He is a Past President of both the Maine and New York State Gerontological Societies and sits on the editorial boards of the Journal of Gerontological Social Work and Journal of Aging Life Care, and is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America.