M. Aaron Guest is a socio-environmental gerontologist whose research interests lie at the nexus of health, identity, and the social & built environments. Aaron is currently a fourth Ph.D. candidate in Gerontology at the University of Kentucky with plans to graduate in Spring 2019. He holds a Master of Public Health, a Master of Social Work, Graduate Certificates in gerontology and health communication, and a Bachelors in Anthropology and Women’s and Gender Studies from the University of South Carolina.

      His research centers on how marginalized, particularly LGBT, rural older adults’ social networks affect their health and quality of life. Specifically, he focuses on the relationship between older adults’ social networks and health.  He applies his interdisciplinary background as a community-based scholar to address health inequities, improve health equity, and improve health outcomes through decreasing disparities among rural older adults, especially in Appalachia.

       Guest currently serves on the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association, as a representative of the Gerontological Society of America’s Emerging Scholars and Professionals Organization, The NASW National Committee on LGBT Issues, the membership committee of the American Society on Aging, and on the Accreditation for Gerontology Education Council. He formerly served in leadership positions at the National Association of Social Workers, Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, and on a variety of APHA component-specific boards and committees.