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Diane Berish

“I got involved in Age-Friendly Care, PA to help work toward the goal of every older adult living in rural Pennsylvania receiving the highest quality, age-friendly care to support their well-being every day. Our work as a team has the potential to impact many people’s lives for the better. I serve to inform and support that work with data through my primary role on the Age-Friendly Care, PA team in data collection, management, and analysis.”

Diane Berish, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor in the Penn State College of Nursing and serves as the data expert for Age-Friendly Care, PA. Dr. Berish earned her PhD from Miami University in Social Gerontology in 2018 and subsequently joined the faculty at Penn State. Dr. Berish’s interests are in long-term services and supports, statistics and research methods, aging and health care policy, improving care quality, and supporting older adults in all aspects of their well-being as they age. She works collaboratively with several Penn State College of Nursing faculty on their research projects. Dr. Berish spent the earlier part of her career working in long-term care as an activities director.

Research Interests 

  • Statistics and research methods 
  • Long-term services and supports 
  • Aging and health care policy 
  • Health care quality 

PURE Profile

Orcid Profile

Education 

  • Ph.D., Miami University 
  • M.A., University of Virginia 
  • B.A., University of Notre Dame 

Selecting Accomplishments, Contributions, Awards & Memberships

  • Assistant Research Professor in the Penn State College of Nursing
  • Member of the Age-Friendly Care, PA team
  • At Miami University: Long-Term Services and Supports in Ohio. Through the Biennial Survey of Long-term Care, Scripps Gerontology Center provides applied research and policy analysis that has shaped long-term care policy across the state of Ohio. This ongoing project has documented two decades of progress in delivering long-term services in Ohio. In 1992, more than nine of the 10 older people in Ohio supported by Medicaid were in nursing homes. Today, the ratio is approaching 50/50. This study, now in its 24th year, is designed to provide Ohio policy makers, providers and consumers with the information needed to make good decisions in an effort to ensure that Ohio has an efficient and effective long-term service and support system.
  • At the University of Virginia: Virginia Cognitive Aging Project. The Virginia Cognitive Aging Project is a large cross-sectional (N > 5100) and longitudinal (N > 2700) study of cognitive functioning in healthy adults between 18 and 99 years of age. Participants are assessed on a comprehensive battery of psychological measures, which allows for comparisons across psychological domains and over time.
Diane Berish