Marti DeLiema

Picture of Marti DeLiema
she/her/hers
Professor
School of Social Work
Biography

Professor Marti DeLiema comes to the School of Social Work as an interdisciplinary gerontologist, driven to understanding how our society can cultivate long, healthy, and fulfilling lives for all citizens. An important component of aging well is avoiding financial abuse and fraud, yet victimization causes millions of Americans to become financially fragile in older age. Using both quantitative and qualitative research methods, Professor DeLiema studies financial victimization using focus groups, in-depth interviews, and survey and panel data. She collaborates with financial institutions, the Federal Trade Commission, the US Postal Inspection Service, the FINRA Foundation, and other agencies to analyze victimization risk factors and test efforts to inoculate consumers from fraud through enhanced consumer education and structural interventions. Her research is funded by the National Institute of Justice, the Social Securtity Administration, the National Institute on Aging, the Society of Actuaries, AARP and the FINRA Investor Education Foundation.

Prior to joining the School of Social Work, Professor DeLiema was a Research Scholar at the Stanford Center on Longevity at Stanford University. During graduate school at USC she conducted research on elder abuse and neglect in minoritized communities, evaluated outcomes of a multidisciplinary team’s response to abuse, and documented the tactics scam artists use to deceive older adults. 

She is seeking current and prospective PhD students to apply to work in her lab.