Patricia Oh, Ph.D., MSW

As Assistant Director for Community Innovation & Research at the Center on Aging, Patricia Oh, Ph.D., MSW, coordinates its Lifelong Maine initiative, which includes providing technical support and programming for the AARP Network of Age-Friendly States and Communities (NAFSC) in Maine, advising AARP Livable about its rural outreach efforts, and supporting the AARP NAFSC nationally.  In her role as Co-Director of the Consortium on Aging Policy, Research and Analysis, Dr. Oh studies the impact of policy on the lives of older Mainers. She is a frequent speaker at community events and has been invited to present age-friendly community development and healthy aging at state, regional, national, and international venues.

Dr. Oh obtained a Ph.D. in Gerontology from the University of Massachusetts, Boston and MSW from the University of Southern Maine. As a practitioner and researcher, her expertise is in translational research, program development, evaluation, research, and professional and community education. Since 2012, she has focused on age-friendly community development at the national and state levels, with a particular interest in rural communities. Currently, her research focuses on climate and aging, municipal motivation to join the AARP NAFSC, the impact of joining on the social and service environments, and multi-sector collaborations to advance age-friendly community development, and specifically, higher education’s role.

Based on her research with communities, Dr. Oh has authored more than a dozen book chapters and articles about aging in community and is lead author to the award-winning AARP Roadmap to Livability Series and Rural Livability Report. Recent peer reviewed publications include:

  • Black, K., & Oh, P. (2022). Assessing age-friendly community progress: What have we learned?. The Gerontologist, 62(1), 6-17.
  • Black, K., & Oh, P. (2023). Exploring sectoral reach in age-friendly communities. The Gerontologist, 63(5), 920-932.
  • Black, K., Oh, P., Montepare, J., and Kaye, L. (2024).  Leveraging Higher Education in Our Age-Friendly World. Journal of Aging and Social Policy, 1-17. doi:10.1080/08959420.2024.2384187
  • Greenfield, E. A., Black, K., Oh, P., & Pestine-Stevens, A. (2022). Theories of community collaboration to advance age-friendly community change. The Gerontologist, 62(1), 36-45.
  • Oh, P., Kaye, L., & Parham, L. (2021). Community leaders’ perspective of strategies to enhance social connectedness in rural communities. Innovation in Aging, 5(Suppl 1), 315.
  • Oh, P. & White, L. (2022). Approaches to Community Supports and Health Services in U.S. Age-Friendly Communities: Focus on Advance Care and End-of-Life Planning. Journal of Aging Life Care, 32(1), 11-17.