Research Interests

Horace Deets served as Executive Director of AARP from 1988 to 2001. During his tenure, AARP increased its membership by six million and the number of state offices went from one in 1990 to one in every state and territory of 2002. Deets led the organization to a position of legislative influence on both national and state levels. Fortune magazine named AARP the most influential organization in Washington for three years in a row (1997-1999). He oversaw the creation of a subsidiary organization to provide marketing, new product development and interactive services; a new call center to provide toll free services to members; online capacity for membership registration and renewal; enhanced membership processing capacity; and, expansion of new member services. Deets retired after 26 years of service to the organization.

Deets currently works as a Research Fellow to Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Age Lab, is a Visiting Research Fellow at Oxford University’s Institute of Ageing, and serves as the Chair of the Board of Help Age International, a global network of not-for-profit organizations with a mission to improve the quality of life for disadvantaged older people worldwide. He also serves on the Boards of Neuroscience Solutions Corporation, the National Council of La Raza and Sunrise Assisted Living at Home. Prior boards include the Board of Councilors at the Andrus Gerontology Center of the University of Southern California, the U.N. Institute on Aging in Malta, the Policy Committee of the 1996 White House Conference on Aging, the American Foundation for Urologic Disease and the Leadership Conference for Civil Rights.

He has been a frequent speaker before local, state, national and international audiences including the National Press Club, the Houston Forum, the Cleveland City Club, the Dutch Marketing Association and the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) Conferences. He has also made numerous radio and television appearances, including network news, Face the Nation, NPR and C-Span. He has been interviewed and prof8iled by numerous publications such as Fortune, the Non-Profit Times, Computer World, Executive Update, Diversity Journal, the Washington Post and the New York Times. His op-eds have appeared in major newspapers in the country, including the Washington Post, New York Times, USA Today, Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Times.

Among the awards he has received are: The American Society on Aging Chair’s Award, the Andrus Gerontology Center’s Dean’s Medallion, a Champion of Diversity Award from Working Mother Magazine, the Foreign Policy Association’s Award for his public education efforts, the International Platform Association’s Claude Pepper Humanitarian Award, and Honorary Doctorates from Franklin Pierce College and Empire State College of the State University of New York.