What led you to the USC Leonard Davis School PhD in Gerontology and to your research focus?
Eleanor Batista-Malat PhD ’26: I came to USC for my PhD training because of the unique opportunity to study aging from multiple perspectives. Although I’m unlikely to regularly read neuroscience papers going forward, understanding the fundamentals of different areas of aging research will help me better communicate with the diverse colleagues I’ll have throughout my career. I found my dissertation topic because of the strong mentorship I had both in the Leonard Davis School [as a member of the Secure Old Age Lab led by Professor Kate Wilber] and in the Keck School of Medicine, which allowed me to dig into elder abuse research and interventions.
During the course of your PhD research, have you reported findings that are striking or unexpected in some way?
There has been almost no research on the relationship between home- and community-based services – like home health care or meals services – and elder abuse, despite (or because of) the conventional wisdom that older adults who use these services are at lower risk. However, in my dissertation, I found that there is no difference in the likelihood of experiencing abuse between older adults who use these services and those who do not. Without doing this research, we may have continued to make assumptions and missed out on ways to improve the care of older adults.
What are some other meaningful experiences that you’ve had during your time here?
One of the highlights of my time as a PhD student has been the USC Judith D. Tamkin International Symposium on Elder Abuse. I attended this event in my second year and earlier this year, and both times it has helped me build my network and think more deeply about my research. In fact, I solidified my interest in considering differences in elder abuse between those who do and do not use home- and community-based services at the 2024 Symposium and presented my findings there this past February!
What are your plans for after graduation?
I will be joining the VA Advanced Fellowship Program in Health Systems Research within the VA Los Angeles HSR Center for the Study of Healthcare Innovation, Implementation, & Policy. I’m very excited to continue to build my research skills for improving the care of older adults and begin work with a new population.
