Marti DeLiema, PhD

Marguerite (Marti) DeLiema is an assistant professor of research at the University of Minnesota, Twin Cities, in the School of Social Work. Her research focuses on identifying the sociodemographic, psychological, and contextual factors related to fraud victimization. She frequently collaborates with AARP, the FINRA Foundation, and the Better Business Bureau on fraud victimization studies. In addition to exploring the drivers of susceptibility to scams, Dr. DeLiema has developed training materials for financial services professionals to better detect and respond to elder financial exploitation. She is currently designing a “Conversation Guide”—a person-centered tool to ease aging individuals into having a discussion with their loved ones about planning for future changes in financial decision making capacity and designating trusted agents.

Dr. DeLiema completed a postdoc at Stanford University and received her Ph.D. in Gerontology from USC. Her research focus at USC was on elder abuse and neglect in community settings and the tactics scam artists use to deceive older victims. She has published studies on how older adults from different racial/ethnic backgrounds define elder abuse and how mandatory reporters and adult protective services workers perceive elder abuse response. While at Stanford, Dr. DeLiema organized a series of National Institute on Aging-funded workshops to train early career researchers to collaborate with private sector organizations on applied research.