Rachel E. Dwyer is Professor of Sociology and Faculty Affiliate of the Center for Aging Families and the Institute for Population Research at The Ohio State University. She studies wealth inequality and consequences for health and well-being across the life course and is particularly interested in intergenerational financial ties. In one large stream of research, Dr. Dwyer studies the role of credit and debt dynamics in wealth inequality and consequences for aging families across the life course. With colleagues, she has built a large panel dataset of consumer credit records (OSU-WI CCP) for a national sample as well for the population of credit record holders in Ohio and Wisconsin. She also works with teams to develop improved qualitative and survey data collection on credit and debt inequality. She pursues a related but distinct stream of research on care work that includes studies of the growing demand for care services in part due to the changing demography of aging families. Her work has appeared in the American Sociological Review, the Journal of Health and Social Behavior and the Journal of Marriage and Family among other outlets. She has served as PI on NSF and NIH grants as well as grants from private foundations. Dr. Dwyer’s scholarly agenda aligns with all three of CAF’s research themes on the changing demography of aging families; aging family health; and health disparities in aging families. Dr. Dwyer serves as a Mentor in CAF’s Emerging Scholars program.
