Gerson Galdamez
Program Officer
Gerson Galdamez, PhD, (“Herson,” he/him) is a scientist and musician who uses academic research, policy, philanthropy, and the arts to promote full and healthy lives for people of all ages. As a program officer at Archstone Foundation, Dr. Galdamez leads and builds the Training component of the Foundation’s care coordination strategy with a focus on health equity through proposal development, grant monitoring, and program evaluation.
As part of his doctoral research, Dr. Galdamez led a four-year, $2 million project on elder abuse multidisciplinary teams and Elder Abuse Forensic Centers. This research, supported by the Administration for Community Living (ACL), provided groundbreaking primary data on elder abuse multidisciplinary teams across the United States, including information on team composition, trainings, best practices/processes, and measured outcomes. As a 2016-2020 Robert Wood Johnson Health Policy Research Scholar, he used these findings to support the replication of elder abuse intervention models across the country, in addition to elder justice advocacy efforts at the state and federal level.
Prior to joining Archstone Foundation, Dr. Galdamez served as a program associate at Fundamental, Inc., a philanthropic and political consulting firm in Los Angeles. During his time at Fundamental, he helped launch The Hearthland Foundation and managed the Righteous Persons Foundation, both founded by Kate Capshaw and Steven Spielberg. Through this unique role, Dr. Galdamez applied his expertise on aging, research, and policy to a wide range of issues, including building a more inclusive American democracy, supporting underserved youth in Los Angeles, bridging partnerships across political divides, and championing artists committed to social justice. As an artist himself, Dr. Galdamez is a proud member of the Eisner Foundation Heart of Los Angeles Intergenerational Orchestra, which brings together musicians across the lifespan to share their love of music.
Dr. Galdamez holds a Doctor of Philosophy from the University of Southern California Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. He interned at Archstone Foundation in the Spring of 2019.
