New York State Assembly Member Rebecca Seawright has honored UMass Boston gerontology doctoral student Elisabeth Stam with a New York State Assembly 2023 Woman of Distinction Award. Seawright, who represents the 76th District of Manhattan (Upper East Side, Yorkville, and Roosevelt Island neighborhoods), recognized Stam’s contributions as a gerontology researcher and social worker to improving the well-being of older New Yorkers. Stam is a lifelong resident of New York City.

The Women of Distinction Awards are co-sponsored by Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center’s Women on the Move to honor extraordinary women who make communities stronger and to pursue the advancement of women. Stam was one of 16 women who were honored at the ninth annual Women of Distinction Awards celebration in May 2023.

Stam earned an undergraduate degree in history from Barnard College, where she was awarded Barnard’s Bear Pin Award for Leadership, and a master’s degree in social work from Columbia University. At UMass Boston she is a member of the Sigma Phi Omega Honor Society. Her doctoral research focuses on dental health in older adulthood. In March 2023, she received the 2023 American Society on Aging’s Graduate Student Research Award for her work on the oral health disparities of older adults in the United States.

Since 2018, Elisabeth has served hundreds of older adults on the Upper East and West Sides of Manhattan as a social worker and program impact analyst for DOROT, a nonprofit organization dedicated to ameliorating the challenges of aging. She also served as research director for the acclaimed Legacy Interviews and Sages of Aging documentary programs produced by Age Wave, a though leadership company in the field of aging.