Liat Ayalon

Liat Ayalon, PhD, Israel
Director (2021-2023)

Prof. Liat Ayalon is a clinical psychologist and a researcher in the School of Social Work, at Bar Ilan University, Israel. Her main area of research for the past decade has been ageism: Prejudice, discrimination and stereotypes towards people because of their age. Between 2014-2018, Prof. Ayalon led an international research network on the topic of ageism, funded through COST (Cooperation in Science and Technology; COST IS1402). The network comprised of over 200 researchers from 34 different countries and enriched the field through research and policy work on the topic of ageism. Currently, Prof. Ayalon coordinates an international EU funded Ph.D. program on the topic of ageism (EuroAgeism.eu). As part of the program, 15 international students are enrolled in academic and non-academic institutions and pursue their Ph.D. in the field of ageism. As the goal of the program is to bridge between science and policy, students engage in both academic and policy work. In addition, Prof. Ayalon is the Israeli PI of the EU funded MascAge program to study ageing masculinities in literature and cinema. Another research project currently funded by the Israel Science Foundation concerns the intersection between climate change discourse, ageism and intergenerational tension. Prof. Ayalon is the head of the Ageism Impact Center and currently develops an online education website dedicated to the topic of ageism. The website will disseminate information on ageism to the general public and to professionals in both English and Hebrew. Locally, her research has been supported by the Israel Science Foundation, the German Israeli Foundation, the Ministry of Health, the National Insurance Institute of Israel and the Israel National Institute for Health Policy Research. She is an alumnus of the Israel and the Global Young Academies. Prof Ayalon currently serves as a deputy editor of the International Psychogeriatrics. She is also on the editorial board of several national and international journals, including Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences, Research on Aging, Journal of Applied Gerontology and several others.

Prof. Ayalon has been extremely active in ensuring that research findings are delivered and disseminated in ways that can be adequately used by policy stakeholders to improve the state of older people. Given her strong interest in policy, she has collaborated with various policy organizations over the past decade in order to improve the state of older people in society. Prof. Ayalon served as a member of the SAPEA (Science Advice for Policy by European Academies) work group, commissioned by the European Commission to prepare a report on the topic “transforming the future of ageing.” She also serves as a member of the WHO (World Health Organization) core group to develop a global campaign to combat ageism and the WHO global network on long-term care. As such, she has contributed to several WHO reports, including to the global report on ageism (launched March 18, 2021). Locally, she consults the National Insurance Institute of Israel on various innovative projects in the field of ageing. She serves on the council for the benefit of older people established by the Ministry of Social Equality. She is also a member of several national committees and councils established by the Ministry of Science and Technology and by the Israeli Academy of Science to enhance higher education and science in Israel.