Moon Choi, Ph.D. is an Assistant Professor in the College of Social Work and a Faculty Associate in the Sanders-Brown Center on Aging at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Choi has received her Ph.D. in Social Welfare with concentration on Gerontology at Case Western Reserve University and completed her two-year postdoctoral training in epidemiology at Virginia Commonwealth University School of Medicine. Previously, she interned at the United Nations Secretariat in the Department of Economic and Social Affairs.

Dr. Choi’s research has focused on gerontology and macro practice, bridging between public health and social work. She was a Principal Investigator of Geriatric Training and Education Initiative aimed at building an Aging-Mobility Network of policy makers, researchers, non-profit organizations, and health care providers in Virginia (project website: www.agingmobility.org). Dr. Choi has published in the areas of driving cessation, transportation support, mobility limitations, and health and mental health disparities among older adults. Her current research projects aim to examine the interactions between built environment, life-space mobility, and mental health in later life, translating research findings into policy and practice to promote mobility and social integration among older adults.

Dr. Choi is increasingly interested in creative uses of digital media as a means to convey information to the general public, and won awards from Hartford Geriatric Social Work Initiative and the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) for her YouTube videos on aging (YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/paranmars). Her short films about the meaning of driving and independence in later life were also selected to be screened at the Annual Gero-Ed Film Festival in the Council on Social Work Education (CSWE) Meeting in 2011 and the Film Festival in the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting in 2012.

Selected Publications:

Choi, M., Mezuk, B., Lohman, M., Edwards, J.D., & Rebok, G.W. (in press). Gender and racial disparities in driving cessation among older adults. Journal of Aging and Health, in press. Epub ahead of print retrieved September 19, 2012, doi: 10.1177/0898264312460574

Choi, M. , Adams, K.B., & Kahana, E. (2012). The impact of transportation support on driving cessation among community-dwelling older adults. The Journals of Gerontology, Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 67, 392–400. doi:10.1093/geronb/gbs035

Choi, M. & Mezuk, B. (2012) Aging without driving: Evidence from the Health and Retirement Study, 1993 to 2008. Journal of Applied Gerontology, in press. Epub ahead of print retrieved April 9, 2012. doi: 10.1177/0733464812441502

Choi, M., Mezuk, B., & Rebok, G.W. (2012) Voluntary and involuntary driving cessation in later life. Journal of Gerontological Social Work, 55(4), 1-10. doi:10.1080/01634372.2011.642473

Choi, M. , Adams, K.B., & Kahana, E. (in press) Self-regulatory driving behaviors: Gender and transportation support effects. Journal of Women & Aging.

Choi, M. , Adams, K. B., & Mezuk, B. (2012) Examining the aging process through the stress-coping framework: application to driving cessation in later life. Aging & Mental Health, 16, 75-83. doi: 10.1080/13607863.2011.583633

Mezuk, B., Edwards, L., Lohman, M., Choi, M., & Lapane, K. (2012) Depression and frailty in later life: a synthetic review. International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry, 27(9), 879-92. doi: 10.1002/gps.2807

Hokenstad, M.C. & Choi, M. (2011). Global Social Issues: Aging. In L. M. Healy & R. J. Link (Eds.), Handbook on international social work (pp. 137−141). New York, NY: Oxford University Press.

Choi, M. & Mezuk, B. (2010) Implications of visual impairment for functioning and mobility of older persons: A global health perspective. Issues of Ageing and Disability: International Perspectives. Special issue, 49−55.