Additionally, Brody taught psychiatry at the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania, and served on several editorial boards of professional journals and review committees of multiple foundations.
[1][2] In 1942. she graduated from City College of New York, and married future University of Pennsylvania aging and public policy expert Stanley J. Brody (died 1997) a year later.
[2] While Brody's husband was serving in the United States Navy during World War II, he encouraged her to enroll in graduate school.
[3] In 1957,[3] she began seeking part-time employment in psychiatric social work with children, and wanted this arrangement so she could care for her own school age offspring in the afternoon.
"[3] Brody assisted other researchers in transforming the PGC and its Polisher Institute to leaders in elderly care and gerontology by expanding from around 150 to 1,500 beds.
[3] In 1969, she and M. Powell Lawton developed a disability measure called the Physical Self-Maintenance Scale to use in the planning and evaluation of treatment for elderly people in the community and institutions.
[2] She became president of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) in 1980,[1][4] becoming the fourth woman to serve in the role,[10] and was named the winner of the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work's Distinguished Alumni Award two years later.
[2] Brody conducted a study in 1986 that discovered 28 percent of females stayed at home to care for their elderly mothers and left the workforce to do so.
According to professor of psychiatry at University of California, San Diego Barry D. Lebowitz, "Elaine was really among the very first people to say, 'No, no, no, that's a cliche, a myth, a distortion'.
"[2] She provided coverage of research, policy, and practice with her ability to combine the intersections of economic pressure and gender, and was informed of a resistance to family propaganda by being knowledgeable on the state of long-term care.