Melanie Z. Plasencia, Ph.D., is an Assistant Professor of Sociology at Rutgers University–Newark. She earned her doctorate in Comparative Ethnic Studies from the University of California, Berkeley, and completed a pre to postdoctoral fellowship at Dartmouth College. Her research examines how older immigrants navigate aging amid poverty, health challenges, limited government support, and intersecting forms of inequality.

Her first book, Aging on the Hudson is based on ethnographic research with older Latino immigrants in an urban community across from Manhattan, the book explores aging, precarity, and the importance of social support.

    Through the Rutgers Hub for Aging Collaboration, Dr. Plasencia recently completed a community-engaged report on older adults in Paterson, New Jersey. The report was reviewed by community stakeholders and will be featured at an upcoming community event. [Read the report here.]

     Her current work includes a virtual reality project with Daniel Rivera [Watch VR trailer here]. She has also served as an expert on a news segment about Latinos in New Jersey. [Watch the segment here.]

      Her scholarship has appeared in Social Problems, The Gerontologist, Generations, and Inside Higher Ed, and has been supported by the Ford Foundation and the Center for Race and Gender. She is committed to making research accessible, useful, and responsive to communities while inspiring new generations of scholars to study aging and inequality.

       Outside the university, she serves as a SPAN Resource Parent, supporting families navigating special education in New Jersey.