New York, NY – The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), is proud to recognize the outstanding contributions of Lauren Hunt, PhD, RN, FNP, with the 2025 Terrie Fox Wetle Rising Star Award in Health Services and Aging Research.
This award honors a health services researcher in an early or middle phase of his/her career who has already made importantcontributions with work that respects the value of multidisciplinary health services science and that is likely to be highly influential inshaping practice and research for decades to come. The award is a framed citation and carries a cash prize of $5,000.
Dr. Hunt is an Associate Professor at the Philip R. Lee Institute for Health Policy Studies in the School of Medicine at the University of California, San Francisco (UCSF). A PhD-trained nurse practitioner and health services investigator, Dr. Hunt’s research focuses on understanding the geriatric palliative care needs and experiences of older adults with dementia across care settings. Her vision is to help older adults, particularly those with dementia, to live and die as comfortably and peacefully as possible. With methodological interest in using Medicare claims and other “big data”, her research has focused on three main areas: 1) Hospice and palliative care health service use and quality of care in older adults with dementia and other serious illnesses; 2) Identifying geriatric palliative care needs in vulnerable older adults across settings; 3) Potentially burdensome interventions and transitions in vulnerable older adults. Respected for her collaborations with health services researchers, physicians, nurses, social workers, biostatisticians, epidemiologists, and gerontologists, she has first- or senior-authored more than 20 publications in Health Affairs, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, and JAMA Internal Medicine. She has earned best abstract and manuscript awards from the American Geriatrics Society, and her novel and influential research on the Medicare hospice benefit program has been cited in Government Accountability Office investigative reports. She was named an Atlantic Fellow for Equity in Brain Health and has received the K76 Paul B. Beeson Emerging Leaders Career Development Award from the National Institute of Aging and the Emerging Scholar Award from the UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies/University of Michigan Institute for Health Policy and Innovation.
"The needs of America's growing older population demand innovative approaches," notes Stephanie Lederman, EdM, AFAR Executive Director. "Dr. Hunt’s multidisciplinary health services research for people with dementia addresses the fundamental forces that shape hospice and palliative care policy and practice, and AFAR is proud to recognize her contributions with this award."
Established in 2019, the award is named to honor Terrie Fox Wetle, PhD, who has devoted her professional career to improving the lives of older persons and advocating for the inclusion of aging-related health services research in Public Health. Dr. Wetle has served as the inaugural Dean of the School of Public Health at Brown University, and Deputy Director of the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health, as well as former board president and current board member of AFAR.
Says Dr. Hunt: “Older adults with dementia and their caregivers face enormous challenges at the end of life, yet so often our system fails them. In my research, I am driven to try to understand how we make hospice and other parts of our healthcare system work better for these individuals. I am profoundly honored and grateful to receive this award from AFAR, an organization that has done so much to advance the care of older adults.”
Dr. Hunt will receive the Wetle Award at a ceremony hosted by AFAR at the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual Scientific Meeting in Boston, MA on Thursday, November 13 from 6:30 - 8:00 pm ET. She will present a lecture on her research.
The Terrie Fox Wetle Rising Star Award in Health Services and Aging Research is one of AFAR’s four annual Scientific Awards of Distinction, in addition to the Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research, the Irving S. Wright Award, and the George M. Martin Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award. Nominations for the awards are judged by a panel of leading aging researchers. Learn more about AFAR’s Scientific Awards of Distinction here.
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About AFAR - The American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR) is a national non-profit organization that supports and advances pioneering biomedical research that is revolutionizing how we live healthier and longer. For more than four decades, AFAR has served as the field’s talent incubator, providing $212,500,000 to 4,460 investigators at premier research institutions to date—and growing. A trusted leader and strategist, AFAR also works with public and private funders to steer high quality grant programs and inter-disciplinary research networks. AFAR-funded researchers are finding that modifying basic cellular processes can delay—or even prevent—many chronic diseases, often at the same time. They are discovering that it is never too late—or too early—to improve health. This groundbreaking science is paving the way for innovative new therapies that promise to improve and extend our quality of life—at any age. Learn more at www.afar.org.