Monique R. Pappadis, PhD, MEd, FACRM, associate professor in the Department of Population Health and Health Disparities and assistant dean for community-based research at the UTMB School of Public and Population Health, has received the inaugural appointment to the Edgar Gnitzinger Distinguished Professorship in Aging. Her five-year appointment began April 1, 2026, and continues through March 31, 2031.
Pappadis said: “This endowment will allow me to better support student trainees in their development of becoming aging scholars. In addition, this endowment will allow me to expand our community-engaged aging research infrastructure.”
A central focus of her current work is improving how primary care identifies and responds to elder mistreatment. In January, the Sealy Center on Aging announced that her team had received a National Institute on Aging award totaling $2.2 million to develop and evaluate a screening, risk-assessment and response program for older adults with mild cognitive impairment or Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. The project combines Medicare claims and assessment data with the perspectives of health care providers, people living with cognitive impairment and caregivers. It also includes caregiver support and delivery in English and Spanish.
That work builds on a 2025 study led by Pappadis that analyzed records from more than 2.2 million Medicare beneficiaries to test a preliminary model for predicting later elder-mistreatment diagnoses. Her broader research examines disparities in access to post-acute and outpatient rehabilitation after traumatic brain injury, particularly among older adults with fall-related injuries, and the support people need to manage their health after returning home.
She is a fellow of the Sealy Center on Aging, a leader in the Clinical and Community-Based Research Resource Core at UTMB’s Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center, and director of dissemination and cultural humility at TIRR Memorial Hermann’s Brain Health and Rehabilitation Research Center.