Biography & Research:
Elena Portacolone, an assistant professor at the Institute for Health & Aging at the University of California San Francisco, is studying the priorities and needs of older adults living alone with cognitive impairment, with a focus on ethnic/racial disparities, using ethnographic interviews and participant observation as her primary research methods. Since 2013 she has interviewed multiple times 58 older adults living alone (22 African Americans) for a total of 200 interviews.