Mary Lou is Assistant Director of Policy at the University of Maine Center on Aging where she conducts research on topics such as older workers, person-centered long-term care, and solo aging. She and colleagues conduct a wide variety of aging-related program evaluations and provide technical assistance to professional networks in state government and in aging services and advocacy.

Mary Lou is a licensed Maine attorney and practiced law in Maine for almost two decades. She was an administrator in a Maine assisted living community for ten years before transitioning to higher education. She also teaches Public Health Law and Public Health Policy for the University of New Englands graduate programs in public health and mentors MPH students on policy-related theses. 

She works closely with the Gerontological Society of America's policy consultant, Brian Lindberg, providing concise summaries of aging policy papers submitted to the GSA's Public Policy & Aging Report journal.

Kimberly Snow, MHSA (left), Mary Lou Ciolfi, JD, MS (middle) and Patricia Oh, PhD, MSW (right) are Co-Directors of CAPRA and lead policy research and analysis work in Maine and beyond. The three women together have many decades of experience on a wide range of aging topics, including age-friendly communities, elder mistreatment, social isolation and loneliness, older workers, long-term care quality, and ageism and anti-ageism training. 

CAPRA's clients include The State of Maine Governor's Cabinet on Aging, the Maine Council on Aging, Southern Maine Agency on Aging, Maine's Office of Aging and Disability Services, the Maine Department of Labor, AARP Maine, and Lifelong Maine.