Melissa Hunter brings experience in elder care to her role as a researcher in RTI’s Aging, Disability, and Long-term Care Program. She provides technical assistance and qualitative research, including structured interviews, environmental scans, and policy analysis, for projects related to caring for people as they age, including those with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. As the former Elder Services Manager at the Orange County Department on Aging in North Carolina, she has a special interest in creating dementia-capable and age-friendly communities.
Currently, Ms. Hunter contributes to our work with the National Alzheimer’s and Dementia Resource Center. She provides individualized technical assistance to grantees, organizes and analyzes grantee data, contributes to papers, and develops reports for the Administration on Aging/Administration for Community Living. She also serves as the technical assistance lead for the Independence at Home Demonstration Project. For a recent project on COVID-19 and the home care workforce, she led the environmental scan of agency policies, interviewed agency leaders, and wrote an issue brief related to agency workforce challenges and mitigation strategies during the pandemic.
Ms. Hunter joined RTI in 2020. In addition to her position with Orange County, she has been a social worker and manager at an adult day health program.
