Elizabeth (Lisa) Samelson, PhD, Named Recipient of 2026 Gordon Strewler Mentorship Award

Elizabeth (Lisa) Samelson, PhD, has received the 2026 Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center Gordon Strewler Mentorship Award.

The award is named after Gordon “Buck” Strewler, the former BIDMC vice chair for education, and is given in recognition of a faculty member who has significantly contributed to the growth and development of BIDMC residents’ research skills and experiences.

It recognizes a faculty member who has generously shared their time, enthusiasm, and knowledge with residents, enriching their research interests and careers.  

“This year’s honoree, a long-time investigator at Hebrew SeniorLife, has truly given her heart and soul to resident research,” said Kenneth J. Mukamal, MD, MPH, BIDMC associate section chief for research. “As an epidemiologist, she was the first ever non-MD to serve as an associate program director, and she has led the department’s research methods course and mentored residents in bone-related projects with truly inimitable commitment, concern, and compassion.”

About Dr. Samelson
Elizabeth (Lisa) Samelson, PhD, is associate scientist at the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research at Hebrew SeniorLife and associate professor at Harvard Medical School.  The major areas of Dr. Samelson’s research include excessive spinal curvature, spinal degeneration (R01 AG041658), and the use of CT imaging to measure skeletal fragility.  She is principal investigator for a Framingham Heart Study project (R01 AG065299) with the objective to identify vascular mechanisms contributing to skeletal fragility in older adults. As part of this project, Dr. Samelson and team have performed high-resolution peripheral quantitative tomography (HR-pQCT) examinations to evaluate longitudinal changes in bone microarchitecture in cohort members of the Framingham Heart Study.

Dr. Samelson has served as associate program director for research in the Internal Medicine Residency Program at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, where she has directed courses on clinical research methods.  She has served as co-director of the Advanced Research Training Seminar (AARTSS) in the Harvard Translational Research in Aging Training Program (T32), mentoring trainees and early-stage investigators in methods of aging research.  

Dr. Samelson received an MPH from the University of Illinois at Chicago, a PhD in epidemiology from Columbia University, and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in musculoskeletal epidemiology at Boston University School of Medicine.

About Hebrew SeniorLife
Hebrew SeniorLife is a national leader working to create a world where aging is defined by possibility, not limitation. We care for more than 4,500 older adults each day across seven campuses throughout Greater Boston, and offer support for families in the aging journey. Our services include in-home care, outpatient therapies, an outpatient memory clinic, short- and long-term inpatient care, hospice, independent and assisted living, and affordable housing with services. We conduct influential research on aging at our Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research, which has a grant portfolio of $87 million, and train future health care workers at the Lunder CareForce Institute. Hebrew SeniorLife is a Harvard Medical School affiliate. Follow us on our blog, Facebook, Instagram, and LinkedIn.  

About the Hinda and Arthur Marcus Institute for Aging Research
Scientists at the Marcus Institute seek to transform the human experience of aging by conducting research that will ensure a life of health, dignity, and productivity into advanced age. The Marcus Institute carries out rigorous studies that discover the mechanisms of age-related disease and disability; lead to the prevention, treatment, and cure of disease; advance the standard of care for older people; and inform public decision-making.