Marie-Therese Connolly

Marie-Therese Connolly (2016) is completing a book for W. W. Norton on the immense and often invisible problem of abuses suffered by our oldest citizens.

She has received a MacArthur “genius” Grant for pioneering the field of elder justice: the fight against exploitation, neglect, abandonment, and other often lethal mistreatment of millions of aged Americans. The problem goes largely overlooked by professionals in law and medicine, social and financial services—and even by friends and family of victims. And most victims won’t or can’t report it themselves. Her book describes the tribulations, frustrations and innovations of a doctor, a social worker, a prosecutor and others in the field of elder justice. It will be ground-breaking work.

Carey nonfiction residents have written about the struggle for equal justice under law. Connolly will be the first to have written a law addressing inequality and injustice. She became the chief architect of the Elder Justice Act during her years at the Justice Department and the Senate Special Committee on Aging. The Elder Justice Act, the first comprehensive legislation dealing with elder abuse, was enacted as part of the Affordable Care Act in 2010.

Connolly has been working on elder justice issues since 1999. She is a longtime global fellow at the Woodrow Wilson International Center in Washington, D.C. and she has published widely professional journals, blogs and newspapers.