Uri Amir-Koren

Uri Amir-Koren is a PhD student at the Rutgers School of Social Work. Uri’s research interests focus on the detriments to social connectedness across the life span, particularly the experience of loneliness and social isolation, as it manifests in older adults who lack traditional familial social networks, such as solo agers (e.g., single people who are child-free), aging LGBTQ+ people, and immigrants living away from their familial networks. He also maintains a secondary interest in the lived experiences of diaspora populations at times of homeland conflict.

As a Graduate Assistant at the Hub for Aging Collaboration, Uri works with Drs. Emily Greenfield and Ayse Akincigil on mixed-methods studies on age-friendly communities, the Village Movement, and supportive housing models that promote aging in place.

Uri holds an M.S.W. from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, where he also studied as an exchange student at Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work. He previously earned a Master of Studies in Jewish-Christian Relations from the University of Cambridge, and a post-graduate diploma in Drama Therapy, from Tel-Hai College.

Uri brings over a decade of experience as a psychotherapist and drama therapist, having worked with diverse populations from almost every life stage – children, adults, and older adults. In private practice he primarily serves adult members of the LGBTQ+ community and immigrants. His clinical orientation is grounded in depth psychology and creative arts therapies. Originally from Jerusalem, Israel, Uri brings an international and interdisciplinary lens to the research of aging, social connectedness, and human development.