Lené Levy-Storms, PhD, is an associate professor in the Department of Social Welfare at the UCLA Luskin School of Public Affairs and the Department of Geriatrics at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA, an associate director of the UCLA Borun Center for Gerontological Research, and the director of the UCLA undergraduate Gerontology interdisciplinary minor. She is currently serving as the capstone coordinator for the MSW program, as well as the treasurer, policy chair, and interim development chair of the American Public Health Association’s Aging and Public Health section. 

Professor Levy-Storms’ research agenda focuses on social health behaviors and well-being among older adults in community-based and institutionalized settings. She employs both quantitative and qualitative methodology and uses both primary and secondary data sets for intervention and observational inquiries into direct care workforce training, dementia care, and health care provider/patient communication. She is particularly interested in how interpersonal communication serves as a mechanism of social support during caregiving and in the formation of intergenerational relationships. 

In 2023, Levy-Storms received the Chancellor’s Award for Community-Engaged Scholars with which she has expanded her research to include studies on intergenerational relationships as a basis for interventions to reduce social isolation and loneliness. 

With funding from the NIA, Alzheimer’s Association, Hartford Foundation, American Medical Directors’ Association, and Archstone Foundation, Levy-Storms in collaboration with Susan Kohler created “Get Connected,” a communication training program for providing care to older adults living with dementia. Because of “Get Connected,” she received funding from the UCLA Bedari Kindness Institute in 2021 to implement the program in long-term care facilities so they can train their staff with it, as well as a UCLA Innovators Fellowship in 2022 to explore bringing it to market.

Levy-Storms has a BS in biopsychology from UC Davis, an MPH in biostatistics, and PhD in public health.