Faculty Directory

Christina Matz

Associate Professor

Chair, Older Adults & Families Field of Practice

Profile

Christina Matz, MSW, PhD, FGSA, is an Associate Professor in the Boston College School of Social Work where she is Chair of the Older Adults & Families Field-of-Practice and Director of the Spier Fellows in Aging program. Dr. Matz is also Co-Director of the Center on Aging & Work with Dr. Jacquelyn James. Her research focuses on meaningful engagement in later-life and its effects on the health and well-being of individuals, families, organizations, communities, and society.

She is a co-lead on the American Academy of Social Work and Social Welfare's (AASWSW) Grand Challenge focused on “Advancing Long and Productive Lives” and in 2019 she was inducted as a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA).  

Funded by a National Institute on Aging P30 pilot grant with the Boston Roybal Center for Active Lifestyle Interventions and the Boston College Institute on Aging, Dr. Matz developed and pilot-tested (RCT) a behavioral intervention (called Engaged4Life) designed to encourage community-dwelling older adults to embed physical activity, cognitive activity, and social interaction into their everyday lives in contexts that are personally meaningful and natural via technology-assisted self-monitoring of activity levels, psycho-education, goal setting, and peer support. She is currently adapting this intervention for new populations and planning to test its effectiveness on a larger scale.

Dr. Matz has co-authored more than 40 scholarly articles and book chapters and numerous reports/issues briefs. In 2018, one of her publications won the MatherLifeWays Institute on Aging Innovative Research on Aging Silver Award and in 2014, another publication was awarded the AARC/MECD Patricia B. Elmore Award for Outstanding Research in Measurement and Evaluation. Christina was a John A. Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar (2012-2014), an Early Career Work and Family Scholar (2013-2014) and earned acceptance into the National Institute on Aging (NIA)-funded Institute on Aging and Social Work (2012-2014).

She teaches courses in Research Methods and Advanced Practice with Older Adults in Home and Community Settings at the Masters level. In 2017 she won the Teaching Excellence Award and in 2017 the Mentor of the Year award at the Boston College School of Social Work.

Finally, Dr. Matz serves on the board of the Encore Boston Network and the steering committee of the Sloan Research Network on Aging & Work. She has facilitated working partnerships with several Boston-area community organizations including ReServe Greater Boston, Empower Success Corps, the Waltham Council on Aging, Massachusetts Service Alliance, and Generations Inc.