Dr. Breana Bietch

Dr. Breana Bietsch, prior to her pursuit into social work research, worked in different social work roles with older adult populations, including a community outreach program, a hospice, multiple nursing homes, homecare services, and senior housing services. In her undergraduate program, she studied Psychology at Rider University and minored in Health Administration, focusing one of her final projects on the health outcomes of those receiving Medicaid in NJ, igniting her passion for research to end disparities in health care. She then earned her MSW at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, NJ and received a certificate on Aging through the program, which led to her different social work roles in the area of gerontology. She went onto pursue her PhD at the University of Connecticut to better understand health care issues older adults faced to influence health care policy change. Through her research, she found that older LGBTQ+ adults had many research gaps that needed to be examined to support improved health outcomes for these populations. During her doctoral program, Breana focused her research then on understanding health disparities older LGBTQ+ communities often face and solutions to ending these disparities. Her current research focus is on peaking social work student interest in working with these populations and supporting research on marginalized older adult populations in general, to fill gaps in health care research and improve the lived experiences of these communities. 

Breana will be teaching in the MSW program in the areas of social welfare policy and human behavior and the social environment. Ultimately, Breana hopes to work with students, combining these research and teaching interests, into furthering the research available on older LGBTQ+ communities, support student research in the field of social work, enhance gerontological social work education, and improve the overall well-being of aging populations.