Jennifer Karas Montez is a Professor of Sociology, the Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies, Director of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies, and Co-Director of the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab at Syracuse University. Her research investigates trends and disparities in population health since the 1980s and the growing influence of U.S. state policies and politics on those outcomes. A major focus of her work examines why health trends are particularly worrisome for women, for people without a college degree, and for those living in states in the South and Midwest. Her research on these topics has been featured in outlets such as the New York Times, BBC, NPR, and CNN; and has been funded by the National Institute on Aging, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, and the Carnegie Corporation. Montez received her PhD in Sociology from the University of Texas at Austin and did her postdoctoral training as a Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholar at Harvard University. Montez has been an active member of IAPHS, serving on the program committee in 2018 and co-chairing (with Shannon Monnat) the program committee for the 2020 IAPHS conference.