Jessica Finlay

Jessica Finlay is an Assistant Professor of Geography at the University of Colorado Boulder, with a dual appointment as a Faculty Fellow at the Institute of Behavioral Science. She completed her Ph.D. in Geography and Gerontology (Public Health) at the University of Minnesota in 2018 and served as an NIH-funded postdoctoral research fellow at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research from 2018 to 2023.

• Education
  • B.A. in Geography and Education, Queen's University (Canada)
  • M.A. in Geography, University of Minnesota
  • Ph.D. in Geography and Gerontology, University of Minnesota

Her research integrates health geography and social epidemiology to examine how built, social, and natural environments influence health, aging, and quality of mid-to-later life. She employs qualitative and mixed-methods to investigate neighborhood determinants of cognitive aging, active aging in place, and environmental stressors. Key projects include the development of the Cognability mapping tool and co-leadership of the COVID-19 Coping Study, which tracks pandemic impacts on aging adults' physical, mental, and cognitive wellbeing.

Her publication trends reveal a focus on neighborhood barriers to cognitive health, pandemic-induced social isolation, and geospatial health disparities. She utilizes national datasets like the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke (REGARDS) Study and Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to quantify environmental effects on aging populations.

• Scientific Awards
  • 2023 Innovative Research on Aging Silver Award
  • 2023 NIH Matilda White Riley Behavioral and Social Science Honors
  • 2023 National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center Rising Star Award
  • 2022 Gerontological Society of America Carroll L. Estes Rising Star Award

Finlay advises graduate students including Hayes Hart-Thompson, Zhe Lin, and Mallory Sagehorn. She has secured substantial NIH/NIA funding through grants like the Pathway to Independence Award (1K99AG075152-01) and Small Business Innovation Research Grant (R44AG063683-01). Her work also contributes to the National Neighborhood Data Archive (NaNDA), a public health geospatial resource.