Ruth Finkelstein, ScD, is the Rose Dobrof Executive Director of the Brookdale Center for Healthy Aging at Hunter College and a professor at Hunter College. She has expanded Brookdale’s research and policy efforts to improve the health, economic security, and social participation of older adults. Under her leadership, Brookdale, with the CUNY Institute for Demographic Research and The New School, was awarded a Retirement and Disability Research Center (RDRC) funded by the Social Security Administration. The NYRDRC focused on economic inequality and those left behind. Until its termination in 2025, Dr. Finkelstein codirected the center while conducting research on the effects of digital systems for older adults’ access to public benefits and on employment and public benefits opportunities for formerly incarcerated older adults and late-arriving immigrants. During COVID, she guided Brookdale’s rapid response, with attention to vaccine access, social isolation, and digital exclusion. Earlier, she was the architect of the award-winning Age Friendly New York City and the Age Friendly Employer awards. Dr. Finkelstein was an early leader in HIV/AIDS advocacy and policy research during the first two decades of the epidemic. She is the recipient of numerous awards and holds a doctorate in health policy from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health.
