American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare

James Lubben

Active | Inducted in 2011

Bio

James Lubben is Professor Emeritus at Boston College School of Social Work and at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) Luskin School of Public Affairs. Dr. Lubben served as the principal investigator or a collaborator on over US$40 million of research and training grants. He served four terms (12 years) on the congressionally mandated Gerontology and Geriatrics Advisory Committee for the Secretary of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. He also frequently offered consultation to the World Health Organization regarding health and welfare systems development for aging societies.

His primary research agenda considers social isolation as a behavioral health risk among older adults. To carry out this research, he developed the Lubben Social Network Scale (LSNS), an abbreviated measure designed for both research and clinical use among older populations. The LSNS has been cited in over 6000 research articles. Dr. Lubben served on over 50 doctoral dissertation committees. He secured $12 million of grant funding from the John A. Hartford Foundation that supported 104 doctoral dissertation research projects in gerontological social work in universities from across the United States.

Dr. Lubben received a BA in Philosophy from Wartburg College (Iowa). He holds an MSW from the University of Connecticut and an MPH from University of California, Berkeley. His doctorate in social welfare is also from University of California, Berkeley. Dr. Lubben is a Fellow in the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare (AASWSW), and the Society for Social Work and Research (SSWR).

https://www.bc.edu/content/bc-web/schools/ssw/faculty/faculty-directory/james-lubben.html