Draft:Aaron Guest

M. Aaron Guest

M. Aaron Guest is a socio-environmental gerontologist and assistant professor of Aging at Arizona State University where he also serves as the Chair of the Secretariat of the Age-Friendly University Global Network.

Background

Guest was born in Northeast Georgia. He was raised between Northeast Georgia and Upstate South Carolina, where he graduate from Westside High School in Anderson, South Carolina. Guest would later credit his upbringing in both rural and Appalachian counties as influencing his early work.

Educational Background

Guest attended the University of South Carolina, Columbia, where he Guest obtained a Bachelors of Anthropology (Cultural) with a minor in Women's and Gender Studies in 20212. He remained at the University of South Carolina where he obtained a dual Master of Social Work and Master of Public Health and received dual-graduate certificates in Health Communication and Gerontology in 2015. He obtained his Ph.D in Gerontology in, with an emphasis in social and environmental gerontology from the University of Kentucky Graduate Center for Gerontology, in 2019. While at the University of Kentucky he studied under Graham Rowles.

Academic Career

Early Career

Guest early career focused on the development of dementia intervention training for caregivers and the working with dual-eligible Medicare/Medicaid individuals through the South Carolina Department of Health and Environment Control within the Office for the Study of Aging at the University of South Carolina. During his doctoral studies, Guest was adjunct faculty at the University of Indiana -Purdue University Indianapolis. He then worked for some time in a community-based empowerment organization in Kentucky. He completed a fellowship with Visible Network Labs in the Summer of 2018.

Arizona State University

Dr. Guest has been at Arizona State University since 2019. He was hired into the Center for Innovation in Healthy and Resilient Aging in the Edson College of Nursing and Health Innovation. While at Arizona State, Dr. Guest advanced his research into the social ties of well-being for older, marginalized communities. He collaborated with multiple units on campus, being named affiliates of.

In 2024 Guest was named a Innovation Faculty Fellow.

Service to the Field

Guest has served as a leading voice to the field of public health and aging. He was the first student member ever elected in their own right to the Executive Board of the American Public Health Association. He was then elected as Speaker of the American Public Health Association twice. In addition to this role, he has served in other capacities, including within the Gerontological Society of America, the Academy for Gerontology in Higher Education, as American Society on Aging. He co-wrote the National Association of Social Workers Guidelines for work with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Clients. He served as the Treasurer of the Appalachian Studies Association.

He serves as Editor of the AGHExchange and of the Gerontology News Educational Column.

He cofounded the Accreditation for Gerontology Education Council.

As of 2024, Guest serves as the Chair of the Secretariat for the Global Age-Friendly University Global Network, part of the Age-Friendly Ecosystem.

Contributions to Science

Guest is the leading authority on age-friendly university practices and environmental domains of age-friendly practices. He is a recognized expert on the Social Determinants of Healthy Aging, particularly as it relates to rural and underserved populations. He publishes frequently within the literature on gerontology in higher education and the gerontological workforce. He has published over 100 pieces related to these topics with over 105 presentations as of 2025.

Notable Honors and Awards

Chris Parker Social Work Student of the Year Award

APHA Environment Member Award

National Rural Health Fellow