Associate Professor Christina Matz. Photo by Caitlin Cunningham for BC Photography.
Christina Matz, an associate professor at the Boston College School of Social Work, says her ongoing partnership with AARP Thought Leadership reflects a long-term commitment to community-engaged, translational research on aging, work, caregiving, and financial resilience.
The core goal of Matz's work with AARP Thought Leadership, the nonprofit’s research division, is to ensure that research both informs practice and is informed by practice, particularly with and for employers who are grappling with workforce aging, caregiving, and equity in real time.
As director of the Center on Aging & Work at BC, Matz notes that the collaboration builds on a 2023 concept paper on marginalized older workers, later explored in her published article on AARP's Megatrends site. Since then, the partnership has produced employer-facing reports, case studies, and cross-sector collaborations.
We spoke with Matz about her work through the lens of research impact and community engagement.
There’s a growing emphasis on research impact—meaning the ways research contributes to society beyond academic publications. When you think about your work from a research-impact lens, what stands out to you?
What stands out to me is that the work is intentionally designed to be used. My partnership with AARP Thought Leadership, through the Center on Aging & Work at Boston College, is grounded in the idea that research should inform practice, and be informed by it. Rather than studying aging, work, and caregiving from a distance, we co-develop research questions with employers and workforce leaders who are grappling with these issues in real time.
Our reports on caregiver-supportive workplaces and innovative employer practices are not simply summaries of findings; they are tools. They are written for employers, HR leaders, and policymakers who are making decisions about benefits, flexibility, and workplace culture. Seeing employers cite the work in internal strategy conversations, or use it to justify new caregiving supports, is a powerful signal of impact.
The impact of your work seems to actively unfold through relationships and engagement rather than something that is reached as an endpoint. How do you think about research impact as a process, particularly in community-engaged partnerships like yours?
I see impact as relational and iterative. Through AARP’s Living, Learning, Earning Longer Collaborative (recently rebranded as the AARP Employer Alliance), I participate in ongoing convenings and workgroups with employers. Those spaces are not dissemination events; they are dialogue spaces. Employers surface constraints, tensions, and blind spots that challenge our assumptions as researchers. In turn, we bring data and frameworks that help shift conversations within organizations.
Over time, trust develops—not because we have the “right” answers, but because we listen, respond, and remain present. The research agenda evolves through these relationships. For example, our emerging Employer Playbook has grown out of an organizational champion-researcher partnership grounded in what would actually be implementable. There are some impacts that are most visible to community partners, but least visible within academic systems.
Are there any signals you’ve noticed that indicate your work is resonating beyond academic audiences?
Many of the clearest signals of impact in my work do not show up in traditional academic metrics. They include invitations to serve as a thought partner or evaluation consultant, participation in employer DEI councils, and being asked to help convene cross-sector dialogues among researchers, policymakers, and industry leaders. These activities reflect trust and relevance in community and practice spaces, even if they are not always fully valued within academic systems. When employers share that our typologies of working caregivers helped them recognize previously overlooked groups in their workforce, that is impact. It signals a shift in understanding that can influence policy, benefits, and workplace culture.
Media coverage, practitioner-facing presentations, and digital scholarship further extend the reach of the work. But the most meaningful indicator is sustained engagement—when partners return for ongoing collaboration rather than a single deliverable. That continuity tells me the research is resonating in ways that genuinely shape practice beyond academia.