Alexis Bender, PhD

Alexis is a member of the evaluation care for Georgia Gear. She provides support to the Georgia Gear Evaluation Lead, Miranda Moore, conducting process evaluation and providing qualitative evaluation expertise.

When Alexis is not working on Georgia Gear related projects, she is an Assistant Professor at the Emory University School of Medicine in the Department of Medicine, Division of General Medicine and Geriatrics and in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine. She also serves as the Process and Implementation Evaluation Lead for the Georgia Memory Net and as a co-investigator on two NIH/NIA-funded R01 studies. Alexis has a PhD in Sociology with a concentration in family, health, and the life course and an interdisciplinary certificate in gerontology. Alexis also is a Sustained Training in HIV and Aging Research (STAHR) scholar. Alexis’ research interests examine the intersections of social support and chronic disease, including substance use, across the life course.

Before joining the faculty at Emory in 2016, Dr. Bender was the Field Studies and Evaluation Lead for the Behavioral and Social Health Outcomes Program at the U.S. Army Public Health Center at Aberdeen Proving Grounds, Maryland. In this position, she led a team of interdisciplinary researchers to conduct mixed methods research and evaluation of social and behavioral health among active-duty soldiers and their families (e.g. behavioral health access, suicide, violence).

In her free time, she enjoys running and baking—but not simultaneously! She also enjoys spending time with her partner, Greg, her wild dog, Moxie, and her 18-year old black cat, Snowflake. When the weather is nice, she enjoys working on her 100-year old home in Grant Park.