RISE-THRIVE lead and headquarters announced

 

Michal Engelman, a nationally recognized sociologist and demographer, has been chosen to lead the RISE-THRIVE Collaboration Headquarters (HQ). Engelman serves as director of the Center for Demography of Health and Aging and principal investigator of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study in the College of Letters & Science. The HQ will be housed in the Wisconsin Institute for Discovery, an interdisciplinary research center within the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research.

Under Engelman’s leadership, the RISE-THRIVE HQ will bring together researchers working at the forefront of two distinct but related research areas—immunology and healthspan. Together, the initiative supports cutting edge research on how the body defends against disease and how to extend the number of years people live healthy lives.

Engelman will join the two RISE HQ directors named earlier this year: Kyle Cranmer leads the RISE-AI HQ, and Chris Kucharik leads the RISE-EARTH HQ. The three RISE HQs serve as hubs for coordinating collaboration among new RISE hires and connecting them to existing campus researchers. The establishment of the RISE-THRIVE HQ will expand these efforts by launching new activities in THRIVE-related research and education and strengthening coordination in areas that cross all RISE initiatives.

“Michal has a remarkable and proven talent for building interactions among the healthy aging research community, identifying opportunities for cross-disciplinary collaboration on external grant applications and bridging to related research in medicine,” notes Dorota Brzezinska, vice chancellor for research. “I’m delighted to see the community of THRIVE related researchers poised for greater momentum under her ability to facilitate connections.

“In addition to fostering scholarly partnerships and showcasing work at the forefront of immunology and healthspan research, as THRIVE HQ lead, Michal will draw on her mentorship and teaching experiences to support students and emerging scholars in these vital areas,” says Provost John Zumbrunnen.

Engelman graduated from the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health with a Ph.D. in Population and Health and a certificate in Gerontology. She joined UW-Madison as faculty in 2013, and has built her research program combining perspectives from social sciences and public health to examine determinants of health and longevity. In 2021 she was appointed director of the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study, the longest-running American study of health and aging which follows a group of Wisconsin’s 1957 high school graduates, their siblings and spouses. She currently leads multiple NIH-supported studies exploring the impact of neighborhood disadvantage on accelerated epigenetic aging and links between early-to-midlife exposures and cognitive health in later life.

“I’m inspired by the vision for the THRIVE initiative,” says Engelman. “I’m excited to engage with many exceptional new and existing faculty members to expand and extend UW’s strengths in research on the healthspan and in immunology, and to facilitate new research and educational collaborations across the biomedical and social sciences. Wisconsin has deep expertise in many fields that seek to understand and promote health and flourishing, and I’m eager to support the success of this interdisciplinary research community.”