Iveris Luz Martinez

Iveris L. Martinez, Ph.D., is the Archstone Foundation Endowed Chair in Gerontology and Director of the Center for Successful Aging at ÀóÖ¦ÊÓƵState University, Long Beach. Professor Martinez is an applied anthropologist who has received funding from the National Institutes of Health, the Macarthur Foundation, and others for her research on health and aging, with an emphasis on minority populations. She has been working in the fields of public health, medicine, and aging since 1997. Her current interests include addressing disparities in services for caregivers and persons with Alzheimer’s and related dementias, interventions to address social isolation, as well as interprofessional workforce development to improve services for aging populations.  She recently completed a study on The Experience of Alzheimer’s Disease Family Caregivers in a Hispanic Community: Cultural congruence and disparities in utilization of support services (NIA 7R03AG054142).

Between 2007 and 2018, she developed and taught courses on cultural competency, social determinants of health, and interprofessional teamwork for Wertheim College of Medicine at Florida International University where she also served as Associate Director of Population Health and Aging. She also chaired the admissions committee for the college of medicine for 5 years. She is co-editor of Anthropology in Medical Education: Sustaining Engagement and Impact (Springer, 2021) which seeks to improve how anthropologists contribute to health science education.

Dr. Martinez is co-founder and Chair of the Long Beach Aging Services Collaborative and member of the Los Angeles Alliance for Aging and Community Health (LAACHA). She previously served as the Chair of the Board of the Alliance for Aging, Inc., the local area agency on aging for Miami-Dade and Monroe Counties in Florida and President of the Association for Anthropology, Gerontology, and the Life Course. She holds a joint Ph.D. in Anthropology and Population & Family Health Sciences from the Johns Hopkins University.

  • Design for Social Inclusion of Older Adults
  • Application of the Social Sciences in Medical and Health Professions Education
  • Health Disparities in Aging

  • Experiences of Latino Family Caregivers for Persons with Alzheimer’s
  • Improving services for diverse aging population through workforce development

Last 5 years

  • Karunakara UK, Martinez IL (2026) Systematically Overlooked: Older Adults in Humanitarian Emergencies.  The Lancet Healthy Longevity. Published online 
  • Martinez IL, Acosta-Gonzalez E, Black L (2024) Services for Latino family dementia caregivers: Is the workforce prepared?  Journal of Applied Gerontology. 43(9): 1251-1258.
  • Martinez, I. L. (2023). Supporting aging in communities through university-community collaborations.  In: Gonzalez, E.A., Angel, S. (eds) Care and Agency in Cuban Civil Society:  National Experiences and International Lessons.[Cuidados y agencia de la sociedad civil en Cuba. Experiencias nacionales y aprendizajes internacionales.] Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad Sergio Arboleda. 
  • Puttock, E. J., Marquez, J., Young, D. R., Shirley, A. M., Han, B., McKenzie, T. L., ...Martinez IL,… & Cohen, D. A. (2022). Association of Masking Policies with Mask Adherence and Distancing during the SARS-COV-2 Pandemic. American Journal of Infection Control. May 2022.
  • Martinez IL, Acosta Gonzalez E. Care v. Caring: Obligation, duty, & love among Latino Alzheimer's Caregivers. Journal of Applied Gerontology First published online: April 28, 2022.
  • Martinez IL, Acosta Gonzalez E, Quintero C, Vania MJ. The Experience of Alzheimer's Disease Family Caregivers in a Latino Community: Expectations and incongruencies in support services, The Journals of Gerontology: Series B, 2021; gbab170,    
  • Martinez IL, Wiedman D, eds. (2021) Anthropology in Medical Education: Sustaining Engagement and Impact.  Springer Press.
  • Wiedman, D.W., Martinez, I.L. (2021). Anthropologists in Medical Education in the United States: 1890s to the Present. In: Martinez, I., Wiedman, D.W. (eds) Anthropology in Medical Education. Springer, Cham.
  • Martinez, I.L. (2021). Anthropology in the Implementation of a New Medical School in South Florida. In: Martinez, I., Wiedman, D.W. (eds) Anthropology in Medical Education. Springer, Cham.
  • Wiedman, D.W., Martinez, I.L. (2021). Contributions, Constraints, and Facilitations for Sustained Engagement of Anthropology in Medical Education. In: Martinez, I., Wiedman, D.W. (eds) Anthropology in Medical Education. Springer, Cham.
  • Goebel J, Bird M, Martinez IL. Empowering the Latino Community Related to Palliative Care and Chronic Disease Management through Promotores de Salud (Community Health Workers).  Journal of Palliative Medicine. Mar 2021; 24(3): 423-427.