McGuinn Hall 321
Telephone: 617-552-1366
Email: cal.halvorsen@bc.edu
Productive engagement in later life, with emphasis on work, self-employment, encore careers, low-income workers, and volunteering.
Cal J. Halvorsen, PhD, MSW, is an assistant professor at the Boston College School of Social Work, a project lead and investigator at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Center for Work, Health, and Well-being, an affiliate of the Center on Aging & Work at Boston College, and a Senior Research Fellow at CoGenerate. His work examines aging societies, intergenerational initiatives, and the need and desire for people past midlife to work past traditional retirement age, with particular emphasis on self-employment, encore careers, low-income workers, and volunteering. His research and training have been funded by both public and private sources, including the U.S. Social Security Administration, National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health, National Institutes of Health, AARP, and the Schiller Institute for Integrated Science and Society.
Cal has published op-eds in Fast Company, Forbes, and Next Avenue on later-life entrepreneurship and ageism. His expertise on older workers has also been featured in The New York Times regarding older entrepreneurs and freelancers, as well as The Washington Post, BBC, AARP, MarketWatch, and more. Due to his research and public scholarship, he received the Carroll L. Estes Rising Star Award from the Gerontological Society of America.
Previously, he worked for six years at Encore.org (now called CoGenerate), later serving as the organization’s director of research and evaluation. Cal is a graduate of both the M.S.W. and Ph.D. programs at the Brown School at Washington University in St. Louis and earned his B.A. from the University of Iowa in his hometown of Iowa City.
Halvorsen, C., Nichols, E.L., & Oh, J. (2023). The CoGenerate Innovation Fellowship: Supporting leaders of intergenerational initiatives. Journal of Intergenerational Relationships. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1080/15350770.2023.2220707
Kautonen, T., Halvorsen, C., Minniti, M., & Kibler, E. (2023). Transitions to entrepreneurship, self-realization, and prolonged working careers: Insights from the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Journal of Business Venturing Insights, 19. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jbvi.2023.e00373
Halvorsen, C., Werner, K., McColloch, E., & Yulikova, O. (2023). How the Senior Community Service Employment Program influences participant well-being: A participatory research approach with program recommendations. Research on Aging, 45(1), 77-91. https://doi.org/10.1177/01640275221098613
Halvorsen, C., Kelley, B., Emerman, J., Weiss, S., Gleicher, D., Stolmeier, J., & Lush, M. (2022). A nationally representative dataset of 1,549 Americans aged 18 to 94 on interest in, experience with, and barriers to cogeneration, defined as working with older and younger people for social good. Data in Brief, 45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.dib.2022.108753
Mbam, K. C., Halvorsen, C., & Okoye, U. O. (2022). Aging in Nigeria: A growing population of older adults requires the implementation of national aging policies. The Gerontologist, 62(9), 1243-1250. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnac121
Halvorsen, C. (2021). How self-employed older adults differ by age: Evidence and implications from the Health and Retirement Study. The Gerontologist, 61(5), 763-774. https://doi.org/10.1093/geront/gnaa132
Halvorsen, C., & Emmanuel, E. (2021). An encore in social work? How our schools can become more age inclusive. Journal of Social Work Education, 57(4), 676-687. https://doi.org/10.1080/10437797.2020.1762269
Kim, S., & Halvorsen, C. (2021). Volunteering as an equalizer? A quasi-experimental study using propensity score analysis. American Journal of Preventive Medicine. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amepre.2021.05.004
Halvorsen, C. & Morrow-Howell, N. (2017). A conceptual framework on self-employment in later life: Toward a research agenda. Work, Aging and Retirement, 3(4), 313-324. https://doi.org/10.1093/workar/waw031
Morrow-Howell, N., Halvorsen, C., Hovmand, P., Lee, C., & Ballard, E. (2017). Conceptualizing productive engagement in a system dynamics framework. Innovation in Aging, 1(1). https://doi.org/10.1093/geroni/igx018
October ’23 – October ’27:
COST Action Proposal (European Cooperation in Science & Technology) to create the LeverAGE global network of scientists and practitioners focused on the multigenerational workforce. Role: Secondary Proposer (co-I equivalent). (Main Proposer: Justin Marcus, Koç University, Turkey).
September ’21 – May ’26:
National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health grant for the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health Center for Work, Health, and Well-Being. Projects included:
· Older Workers’ Health and Well-Being Study. Role: PI.
· Outreach Core. Role: PI.
· Boston Hospital Workers’ Health Study. Role: Co-I. (PI: Erika Sabbath, Boston College).
· Evaluation and Planning Core. Role: Co-I. (PI: Glorian Sorensen, Harvard).
June ’23 – December ’23:
AARP to write a translational report on the employment experiences of marginalized older workers and job seekers in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic. Role: Co-PI. (Co-PI, Christina Matz, Boston College).
June '21 – May '23:
AmeriCorps Seniors emergency demonstration grant to evaluate the Intergenerational Vaccine Corps national and community service program. Role: Co-PI. (Co-PI: Jim Emerman, Encore.org).
Jan '21 – Dec '22:
RRF Foundation for Aging & Encore.org to evaluate the Gen2Gen Innovation Fellowship. Role: Evaluation Lead. (Program Lead: Eunice Lin Nichols, Encore.org).
June '21 – August '22:
Schiller Institute Grants for Exploratory Collaborative Scholarship to assess the Senior Community Service Employment Program’s influence on participant health and well-being. Role: PI. (Co-PIs: Elizabeth Howard, Karen Lyons, Christina Matz, and Sara Moorman, Boston College.)
Los Angeles Times: What we’re missing out on when we don’t have intergenerational relationships, personally and collectively (April 2023; cites the Cogeneration study, on which Cal served as the research advisor)
Next Avenue: Do different generations really want to collaborate to improve the world? (December 2022)
Elle: What it means to be an abuela in 2022 (September 2022; cites the Cogeneration study)
Yahoo! Money: Inflation is one reason some workers may retire later—if at all (August 2022)
New York Times: Making a new start in a business of their own (October 2020)
New York Times: When retirement savings run short, freelancing fills the gaps (September 2019)
BBC News: Why US firms are desperate to retain ageing workers (August 2019)
Jan ’22 – present: Appointed member, Public Policy Advisory Council, Gerontological Society of America
Dec’ 20 – present: Network Co-Lead, Grand Challenge to Advance Long and Productive Lives, American Academy of Social Work & Social Welfare
Nov '20 – present: Senior Research Fellow, CoGenerate (formerly Encore.org)
April ’22: Illumination Award for teaching excellence, Boston College Division of Student Affairs
May '20: Carroll L. Estes Rising Star Award, Gerontological Society of America
Aug '18 – Aug '19: Encore Public Voices Fellowship, sponsored by the OpEd Project, Encore.org, and Ann MacDougall