María Aranda, the executive director of the USC Edward R. Roybal Institute on Aging and an associate professor at the USC Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work, was recently appointed to the Care Interventions for Individuals with Dementia and Their Caregivers committee of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM). This is her fifth NASEM committee appointment. She previously served on four other NASEM consensus committees on the geriatric workforce in mental health and substance use service sectors, family caregiving to older adults with functional limitations, financial capacity determination among social security beneficiaries, and functional assessment for adults with disabilities.
Aranda developed the first Spanish-language support group for families affected by Alzheimer’s disease. Her research specializations address the unique needs of middle age and older adults with co-occurring medical and psychiatric illnesses, and the caregiving families who provide them with love and care. She focuses on psychosocial intervention development, and evaluation of bilingual, evidence-based interventions on behalf of adults with chronic medical conditions and disabilities.