Joan K. Davitt, PhD

Dr. Davitt is an Assistant Professor & Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s School of Social Policy & Practice. She completed the Master of Social Service and Master of Law and Social Policy as well as the Ph.D. in social work from Bryn Mawr College. She has over twenty years of experience developing and administering health and long term care services as a gerontological social worker, combining advocacy, policy, and organizing work with direct practice. Her current research interests include understanding the connections between policy and practice and their impact on access to care and health care outcomes for older adults, and ethical issues in long term care.

Her recent research on Medicare home health care has uncovered racial disparities in access to care in the wake of the Balanced Budget Act. She continues to investigate racial disparities in home care access and outcomes under the prospective payment system. Dr. Davitt was selected into the first cohort of scholars at the NIA funded Institute on Aging and Social Work and was recently awarded the James Zimmer New Investigator Award from the Gerontological Health section of the American Public Health Association. She has published numerous articles on health and long term care as well as the book, Current Practice in High-Tech Home Care, co-authored with Lenard Kaye, which was recently published in German. She has received research support from the Andrus Foundation, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the John A. Hartford Foundation, and the University of Pennsylvania Research Foundation and Institute for Urban Research.