Laura Samuel is a nurse and researcher addressing socioeconomic health disparities. Much of her research has sought to evaluate how low socioeconomic status leads to high chronic disease burden and earlier aging related health outcomes. Her research has identified features of neighborhood and household environments that may contribute to socioeconomic disparities, examined the role of chronic financial strain and evaluated programs and policies that may improve the health of low income populations. Her research interests stem from her clinical experience. She is a family nurse practitioner and has provided primary care in communities. As a nurse practitioner, she regularly witnessed the myriad ways a lack of financial resources can be detrimental to health. She is an Assistant Professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing.
Sarah L. Szanton, PhD, ANP, FAAN is the Health Equity and Social Justice Endowed Professor and Director of the Center for Innovative Care in Aging at the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.Szanton tests ways to help older adults “age in place” as they grow older.She co-developed the CAPABLE program which has been tested in a CMMI demonstration project and in randomized trials and scaled to 29 new sites in 15 States. She was a 2019 Heinz Award winner for the Human Condition and is a PBS Organization’s “Next Avenue Influencers in Aging.” Szanton completed undergraduate work in African-American Studies at Harvard University and earned a bachelor’s degree from the Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. She holds a nurse practitioner master’s degree from the University of Maryland and a doctorate from Johns Hopkins University. She has been by funded by the Center for Medicare and Medicaid Services Innovation Center, the National Institutes of Health, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, the John A. Hartford Foundation, the Rita and Alex Hillman Foundation, and the AARP Foundation.
