Rose C. Gibson

Rose C. Gibson joined the University of Michigan Institute of Gerontology as a research investigator in 1979. She was promoted to assistant research scientist in 1982 and associate research scientist in 1984. She joined the faculty of the School of Social Work in 1985 as an associate professor and was promoted to professor in 1992. She was also a faculty associate in the Institute for Social Research since 1987. She was named professor emerita in 1996.

A nationally and internationally recognized scholar on the subject of race and aging, Professor Gibson is known for her empirical models of race differences in the aging process. She was the first to identify a black-white morbidity crossover in national data and to identify race differences in the meaning and measurement of self-reported health in national surveys. She has published numerous articles and book chapters, as well as several books, including Different Worlds: Inequality in the Aging Experience, Blacks in an Aging Society, Health in Black America, and Aging and the Life Course. Her textbooks on inequality in aging are widely used in undergraduate sociology courses.

Professor Gibson was editor-in-chief of The Gerontologist, the largest multidisciplinary peer-reviewed research journal on aging. She chaired the Governor's Task Force on New Work and Retirement Arrangements for the Older Worker and was vice chair of the Governor's Task Force on Employment Opportunities for Older Citizens. Her awards include the Wilber J. Cohen Award for outstanding contributions to aging research and the Ida I. Beam Distinguished Professorship. Her groundbreaking work on racial differences in mortality rates, retirement, and health status brought her international acclaim.