Dr. Bei Wu, a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, earned her MS and PhD in gerontology at the University of Massachusetts‒Boston. She is Pauline Gratz Professor of Nursing and Professor of Global Health at Duke University, Director for International Research in the Duke University School of Nursing, and Senior Fellow of the Duke University Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development. Currently, Dr. Wu is President of the Geriatric Oral Health Group of the International Association for Dental Research and Chair of the Mentoring Committee at the Gerontological Society of America.
Dr. Wu’s career in gerontology has been distinguished by interdisciplinary collaborations with researchers in various disciplines (particularly nursing and dentistry) at many academic institutions and organizations in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Wu is an internationally known expert on China’s long-term care policy and system development. She has provided lectures and/or consultation in dozens of universities and organizations in China (including Hong Kong), Singapore, the Netherland, Norway, and Turkey. As Principal Investigator, she has led a significant number of projects supported by federal agencies such as the National Institutes of Health, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Administration on Aging, Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and the National Council on Aging (NCOA). These research projects have addressed a variety of issues related to aging and health including long-term care, dementia, caregiving, and oral health. She has published more than 130 peer-reviewed manuscripts, books, and book chapters. She has served on a number of NIH review panels and is also a frequent grant reviewer for the Research Fund of Hong Kong Food and Health Bureau, and the Medical Research Council (United Kingdom). She serves as Methods Core Director for the current NIH-funded Center for Adaptive Leadership in Cognitive/Affective Symptom Science (ADAPT), and is leading an ongoing NIH-funded project aimed at developing a behavioral intervention to improve oral health in older adults with mild dementia.