Eun Young Choi

Dr. Eun Young Choi is an Assistant Professor in Arizona State University’s School of Social Work. She earned her PhD in Gerontology from the University of Southern California and completed postdoctoral training at New York University School of Global Public Health and the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health. Her interdisciplinary training spans gerontology, social epidemiology, population health, and environmental health. Dr. Choi’s work centers on how environmental conditions shape health across the life course, with a particular focus on older adults and immigrant populations. Her research seeks to understand why some individuals and communities are more vulnerable to environmental hazards than others and how social and neighborhood conditions may contribute to resilience in later life.

Dr. Choi’s current research program focuses on the health consequences of extreme weather exposures across multiple stages of the aging process. Her studies have examined extreme heat in relation to biological aging, cognitive decline, and dementia risk, as well as the social and neighborhood conditions that may amplify or reduce these effects. She is the Principal Investigator of an NIH/NIA K99/R00 Pathway to Independence Award examining ambient heat and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias and an Alzheimer’s Association Research Fellowship examining extreme temperatures and health and well-being among people living with dementia. Her research has also been supported by multiple NIH-funded center and network awards and published across gerontology, environmental health, epidemiology, and population health, including in Science Advances, Alzheimer's & Dementia, Social Science & Medicine, The Gerontologist, and Journal of Epidemiology & Community Health. Her work has been featured by multiple national media outlets including The New York Times, NPR, and PBS NewsHour. 

A central goal of Dr. Choi’s work is to connect environmental exposures with the broader social contexts in which people grow older. Her research integrates nationally representative longitudinal studies, biomarkers, environmental and geographic data, and community-based research to understand how place, socioeconomic conditions, social relationships, and structural disadvantage shape aging and dementia-related outcomes. She also serves as a Junior Leader in the Gerontological Society of America’s Behavioral and Social Sciences Section. As an educator and mentor, Dr. Choi is committed to training students to use rigorous quantitative methods to address socially meaningful questions and to developing research that can inform interventions and policies promoting healthier and more equitable aging.