Terri Lewinson, PhD
Medical social worker Terri Lewinson, PhD, MSW, is an associate professor of The Dartmouth Institute for Health Policy and Clinical Practice and Epidemiology.
Her research focuses on the experience of home environments for people who have been marginalized—whether that may be in an extended-stay hotel, assisted-living facilities, or senior housing—to gain an intimate understanding of what it’s like for them to reside there. This work includes exploring the factors involved in residential mobility, or why people transition into and out of different home environments.
As her research has evolved, Lewinson’s focus has broadened to include determining the impacts of environmental factors—such as exposure to toxins in non-traditional home environments and forced housing evictions exacerbated by COVID-19—on health and well-being. Her most recent projects have looked at housing pathways among extended-stay hotel residents, medical social workers’ scope of practice during the pandemic, and examining the role of payment and delivery system reform in combating the opioid epidemic.
Prior to joining Dartmouth, she served as an associate professor at Georgia State University’s School of Social Work and is an affiliate faculty member of the school’s Urban Studies Institute, Partnership for Urban Health Research, and Gerontology Institute.
Lewinson’s professional experience includes serving as a congressional fellow in the U.S. House of Representatives in Washington, DC, and working as a medical social worker at Emory University Hospital in Atlanta. She is a member of the Governance Committee of the Gerontological Society of America, serves on the editorial board for the Journal of Gerontological Social Work, is a consulting editor for Social Work, and is a steering committee member of Curriculum Development for Health Social Work Education for the Council on Social Work Education.
Lewinson is a Gerontological Society of America Fellow, Health and Aging Policy Fellow, and a John A. Hartford Faculty Scholar. Other awards and honors include being named Alumna of the Year at the University of Georgia’s School of Social Work in 2018 and receiving the Distinguished Faculty Award from the Gerontology Institute at Georgia State University in 2015.
Lewinson earned a BA from the University of South Carolina in developmental psychology, an MSW from the University of Georgia, and a PhD from the University of Georgia’s School of Social Work.