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The wisdom I gain from caring for seniors is what has always driven my passion for promoting the health of older adults. When I first started working as a nursing assistant in 1991, it was easy to see the gaps in health services for older adults. Over 30 years later, these challenges persist — and have only gotten worse.

Addressing health disparities across race, ethnicity and age has long been central to our work at the Alliance for Aging Research. The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately impacted older adults and communities of color and has further highlighted the urgency of advancing health equity.

The 10th annual America’s Health Rankings® Senior Report reviews the past decade of data to provide a comprehensive look at the health of older Americans, capturing key trends, challenges and areas of progress in order to spark meaningful dialogue and action to improve senior health.

Building on 32 years of data collection and analysis, America’s Health Rankings is excited to present the 2021 Annual Report and offer a toolkit of customizable resources to help users share data-driven insights with colleagues and communities.

Since the beginning of 2020, the public health community has been working overtime to track, analyze and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic on a day-by-day basis. While that crucial work continues, the America’s Health Rankings 2021 Annual Report marks the beginning of a new phase; we now can begin to analyze and understand the bigger picture of COVID-19, the impact of this public health emergency on the health of the nation overall and where we go from here.

With the release of the 5th edition of the Health of Women and Children Report, America’s Health Rankings is excited to offer a toolkit of customizable resources to help users share data-driven insights.

With the release of the inaugural Health Disparities Report, America’s Health Rankings is excited to offer a toolkit of customizable resources to help users share data-driven insights into the depth, breadth and persistence of health disparities in the U.S. with colleagues and communities.

Improving health disparities and implementing programs that address the root causes of health challenges starts with understanding where those disparities exist — and taking a holistic view of health.

Addressing health disparities has been an important focus of my life and throughout my career. From my early family medicine practice in Appalachia, to working in inner-city hospitals, to my time in academia, at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and now at the CDC Foundation, focusing on and managing health disparities has been front and center to my work.