Rate My Professor Colleen Galambos

Dr. Colleen Galambos, PhD, LCSW, ACSW, FGSA, FAASWSW, is Professor of Social Work and Helen Bader Endowed Chair in Applied Gerontology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee's Helen Bader School of Social Welfare. She earned her PhD from The Catholic University of America's National Catholic School of Social Service. Her professional experience includes clinical, administrative, policy, and research positions in health and long-term care organizations. Galambos has served on prominent National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine committees, including those addressing the health and medical dimensions of social isolation and loneliness in older adults, the quality of care in nursing homes, and the 2020 National Academy of Medicine's Vital Directions for Health and Healthcare project. In 2024, she co-chaired a symposium on essential health care services related to anxiety and mood disorders in women and currently serves on the Health Care Services Board. Locally, she contributes to the Milwaukee County Aging and Disability Resource Center Board, Age-Friendly Steering Committee, and other coalitions focused on caregiving and elder services. She also holds an adjunct professorship at the Medical College of Wisconsin's Clinical and Translational Sciences Institute.

Galambos' research specializations encompass care transitions, advance care planning and end-of-life decision making, aging in place, quality improvement in health and long-term care systems, gerontechnology, behavioral health among older adults, caregiving, and abuse in later life, as well as competency-based gerontological education. Her accolades include Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America, Fellow of the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare, National Association of Social Workers Pioneer status, the 2023 Leadership Award from the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work, selection as a 2020 Milwaukee Business Journal Woman of Influence, 2024 inaugural Bader Leadership Institute Fellow, and recognition among Stanford University's top two percent of most impactful scientists in social work, nursing, public health, and social sciences. Key publications include books Foundations of Social Work Practice in the Field of Aging: A Competency-Based Approach (2nd ed., 2018), Social Work with the Aged and Their Families (4th ed., 2016), and highly cited articles such as Resilience Theory: Theoretical and Professional Conceptualizations (2004, 551 citations) and Actualizing Better Health and Health Care for Older Adults (2021, 405 citations). Her work advances gerontological social work through over 200 publications and leadership in education and policy.