Rachel Filinson

Craig-Lee Hall 461 (401) 456-8026 (401) 456-8732 rfilinson@ric.edu

Background

Professor Rachel Filinson graduated summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa with a baccalaureate degree from the University of Illinois at Champaign-Urbana in 1977 and received her M.Sc in Sociology at the University of Stirling (Scotland) in 1979. Between 1979-1982, she was employed as a Research Fellow at the Medical Research Council Institute of Medical Sociology in Aberdeen, Scotland and simultaneously completed her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Aberdeen. Dr. Filinson was awarded an NIMH (National Institute of Mental Health) postdoctoral fellowship for 1982-1984 at the University of Missouri-Columbia and a Gerontological Society of America summer postdoctoral fellowship in 1984. While teaching at Purdue University-Calumet in Indiana from 1984-1987, she obtained funding for a Gerontology Center ($107,000). Since being hired in 1987 at Rhode Island College, she has taught a wide array of courses that focus on gerontology, sociological theory, sociological methods, medical sociology, or human sexuality. Since 2003, she has been nominated for Who's Who among College and University Teachers. In 2006, Dr. Filinson was a Visiting Senior Research Fellow at King’s College, London.

Professor Filinson has published 30 articles in scholarly journals, edited a book entitled Elder Abuse: Practice and Policy, and received a dozen faculty research grants from Rhode Island College to support her research. As coordinator of the Gerontology Center, she has organized a yearly conference on aging held at the College. She is Vice-President of the New England Gerontology Academy and serves on the Board of Consulting Editors for the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect.