New Graduate Program Coordinator in Gerontology joins McDaniel

Dan Andersen recently joined McDaniel College as the new coordinator of the master’s degree program in Gerontology. He also serves as the director of the Center for the Study of Aging.

Andersen of Sykesville, Md., has spent more than a decade in education. Starting his teaching career in 2007, Andersen has taught at McDaniel College, UMBC and Johns Hopkins University with a focus on Gerontology, issues in aging policy and problems in health care.

He started his career as a postdoctoral fellow at the National Study Center for Trauma and Emergency Medical Systems, R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center, assisting geriatric patients recovering from trauma in 2008. He became a social science research analyst at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, leading healthcare reform efforts in nursing homes. Andersen held positions as acting deputy division director and technical director at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. He was named a principal research associate at IMPAQ International in 2014 before becoming a program director at Lantana Consulting Group in 2018.

In 2018, Andersen also became the owner of Andersen Home Advantages, where he trains builders and remodelers on best practices in working with older clients and creating age-friendly built environments.

Andersen graduated from the University of Miami in Coral Gables, Fla., in 2000 with a bachelor’s degree in Health Sciences. He earned a master’s degree in Public Health from the University of Miami School of Medicine in 2003. He continued his education at the University of Maryland School of Medicine in Baltimore, obtaining a master’s degree in Epidemiology and a doctorate degree in Gerontology in 2008.