Dr. Gravenstein is a graduate of the Ohio State University School of Medicine and completed his Internal Medicine residency training and Geriatrics fellowship at the University of Wisconsin Hospitals and the William S. Middleton Veterans Hospital in Madison, Wisconsin. After spending his early career at the University of Wisconsin, he moved to Eastern Virginia Medical as the Chief of the Division of Geriatrics. From there he came to Brown, where, among other duties, he served as Associate Division Chief and Director of Research in the Division of Geriatrics and as Director of Quality Management and Outcomes in the Department of Medicine. Family needs took him to Cleveland and Case Western Reserve University for five years, where he served as Interim Chief of the Geriatrics Division and Senior Quality Officer and Director of Quality Research Institute at University Hospitals-Case Medical Center. He returned to Providence and Brown where he is Professor of Medicine and Health Services Policy and Practice and Associate Director of the COIN-LTSS and the Providence VAMC.

Dr. Gravenstein is a world expert on a variety of measures to improve the safety of elderly citizens, most recently through large clinical trials of influenza vaccination. He has published more than 160 peer-reviewed articles, received grants from NIH, CDC and a variety of pharmaceutical companies. He has been invited to speak around the world and is committed to building an age friendly world through innovation and better care