Julie Lee, assistant professor of health management and policy, has been named the 2025 recipient of the College of Public Health’s New Faculty Research Award. This award assists newly appointed or junior faculty in collecting preliminary data or pilot studies leading to larger projects. The awards are based on scientific merit, including originality; relevance to the University of Iowa’s public health mission; and likelihood of subsequent extramural funding.

The award will fund Lee’s project, “Family Caregiving, Workforce Outcomes, and Organizational Support in Dementia Care Settings.” 

By 2060, the number of Americans living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias is projected to reach nearly 14 million, increasing the demand for care services and support. However, the workforce that provides care for dementia patients is experiencing shortages as well as high rates of burnout and turnover. These problems are especially acute in rural areas, where care infrastructure is already stretched thin.

An overlooked but potentially critical contributor to these workforce shortages is double-duty caregiving. Lee’s project will focus on double-duty caregivers — workers who provide paid dementia care at work as well as unpaid family care at home. The study will estimate the prevalence of double-duty caregiving among the dementia care workforce and examine how double-duty caregiving relates to dementia care capacity, workforce well-being, and patient care outcomes. The researchers will use data from the National Dementia Workforce Study (NDWS) Wave 1 staff and clinician surveys and NDWS-LINKAGE Medicare claims.

Co-investigators on the project include Kanika Arora and Hari Sharma, associate professors of health management and policy, and Fred Ullrich, program director – research activities, in the Department of Health Management and Policy.