Research Report: National Aging 2011

One of the nation’s leading authorities on gerontology, Dr. W. Andrew Achenbaum is a professor of History and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Social Sciences at the University of Houston. Before coming to the University of Houston, he was a professor of history and senior research scientist at the Institute of Gerontology at the University of Michigan. Andy received his B.A. from Amherst College, a master’s degree in American Civilization from the University of Pennsylvania, and his doctorate in history from the University of Michigan. He has just completed a two-year term as chair of the board of the directors of the National Council on Aging. He was a delegate to the last two White House Conferences on Aging. Dean Achenbaum is the author of four books and co-author of nine others. His most recent book is Crossing Frontiers: Gerontology Emerges as a Science.

Robert Binstock is Professor of Aging, Health, and Society, at Case Western Reserve University. His primary tenured appointments are in the Department of Epidemiology & Biostatistics in the School of Medicine, and in the School of Nursing. He holds secondary appointments as Professor in the departments of Bioethics, Medicine, Political Science, and Sociology. A former president of the Gerontological Society of America, Dr. Binstock has served as director of a White House Task Force on Older Americans, and as chairman and member of a number of advisory panels to the United States government, state and local governments, and foundations. He is also a former Chair of the Gerontological Health Section of the American Public Health Association. He has frequently testified before the U.S. Congress. He is presently a member of the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on an Aging Society. Professor Binstock has published over 300 articles, book chapters, monographs, and books. Most of them deal with politics and policies affecting aging. His 26 authored and edited books include Aging Nation: The Economics and Politics of Growing Older in America (2008), and seven editions of the Handbook of Aging and the Social Sciences (the latest published in 2011). Among the honors he has received for contributions to gerontology and the well-being of older persons are the Kent Award, the Brookdale Award, and the Lawton Award from the Gerontological Society of America; the Lifetime Achievement Award and the Key Award from the American Public Health Association’s Gerontological Health Section; the American Society on Aging Award and the American Society on Aging’s Hall of Fame Award, the Ollie A. Randall Award from the National Council on Aging, the UCLA Distinguished Professorship Award, and the Hvorka Prize from Case Western Reserve University. He received his A.B. and Ph.D. degrees in political science from Harvard University.

Janet Frank is the Adjunct Assistant Professor at UCLA School of Public Health and the Assistant Director for Academic Programs, Multicampus Program in Geriatric Medicine & Gerontology. She received her PhD in Public Health from UCLA and her Masters degree in Gerontology from the University of Southern California. She has received the California Council on Geriatrics & Gerontology (CCGG) Betty and James E. Birren Senior Scholar Award and her main research interests are geriatric education, program evaluation, healthy aging programs, and implementing practice change.

Joseph E. Gaugler is an Associate Professor and McKnight Presidential Fellow in the School of Nursing and Center on Aging at The University of Minnesota. Dr. Gaugler's research examines the sources and effectiveness of long-term care for chronically disabled older adults. A developmental psychologist with an interdisciplinary research focus, Dr. Gaugler's interests include the longitudinal ramifications of family care for disabled adults, the effectiveness of community-based and psychosocial services for chronically ill adults and their caregiving families, the social integration of residents in nursing homes and other emerging models of long-term care (e.g., assisted living, family care homes), and developmental methodology. Dr. Gaugler currently serves as Associate Editor of BMC Health Services Research and on the editorial boards of The Gerontologist, Journals of Gerontology: Psychological and Social Sciences, Journal of Applied Gerontology, and Psychology and Aging. He was awarded the 2003 Springer Early Career Achievement Award in Adult Development and Aging Research from the American Psychological Association (Division 20: Adult Development and Aging) and is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and American Psychological Association.

Carrie Graham is the Senior Research Associate of the Center for the Advanced Studies of Aging Services at the University of California, Berkeley, School of Social Welfare. Our mission is to improve services for elderly people through a multifaceted approach including research, collaboration and education. We support research and development regarding innovative programs and services designed to improve the lives of older persons. Collaboration is also an important goal of the Center, bringing together academics, service providers, community leaders, policy makers, consumers, students and others interested in improving services for the elderly. We also work to improve the training of social workers to meet the needs of a growing and ever-changing population of older Americans.

Charlene Harrington is the Professor Professor Emeritus of Sociology and Nursing and the Director of UCSF National Center for Personal Assistance Services at the University of California San Francisco. Her primary research interests focus on quality, access, utilization, and expenditures of nursing home care, home and community based care, and personal care services, as well as labor market issues. She has received multiple honors/awards including being a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing, a Distinguished Professor at the UCLA, Academic Geriatric Resource Ctr, the Alumni of the Year at the University of Kansas School of Nursing, the Institute of Medicine Elected Member, and other honors/awards.

Keela Herr, PhD, RN, FAAN, AGSF is Professor and Chair of Adult and Gerontology in the College of Nursing at The University of Iowa and Academic Associate, Department of Nursing Services and Patient Care, University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics in Iowa City. Previous academic leadership positions include serving as Interim Head of the Division of Nursing at Truman State University and as the Director of the RN-BSN Program at the University of Iowa. She is currently Research Director for the Iowa John A. Hartford Foundation Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, and Co-Director of the Regional Training Core of the Gerontological Nursing Interventions Research Center. Herr is a current Fellow in the Robert Wood Johnson Executive Nurse Fellow Program. Dr. Herr received her MSN degree in medical-surgical nursing with emphasis in gerontology and education in 1977 and her PhD in nursing from the University of Texas at Austin School of Nursing in 1986. She was employed at Northeast Missouri State University from 1977 until 1987 when she joined the faculty at the College of Nursing in Iowa City. Over the past 20 years, Dr. Herr has been engaged in a program of research and scholarly and professional activities that has focused on the problem of pain in older adults. She is currently Principal Investigator of a study funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) on “Cancer Pain in Elders: Facilitating Use of Evidence Based Practices in Hospices” and Co-Principal Investigator (Co-PI) on a project funded by NINR testing a clinical algorithm for pain management in the nursing home setting. In addition, she has conducted NIH-National Institute of Nursing Research-funded research to establish appropriate tools for evaluating pain intensity in this population and has extended that with a colleague to pain tool use in minority older adults. Dr. Herr was also Co-PI on the Robert Wood Johnson funded project “Improving the Quality of End-of-Life Care in Iowa” and provided leadership for a project that focused on establishing Pain as a 5th Vital Sign in Iowa health care organizations as a step toward improving end of life care. She also was Co-PI on an AHRQ-funded research project “Evidence-Based Practice: From Book to Bedside-Acute Pain Management in the Elderly”, that examined interventions to improve adoption of clinical practice guidelines for pain management in elders in health care organizations.. Dr. Herr has been principal or co-investigator of 22 research projects totaling over $11 million focused on the problem of geriatric pain. Dr. Herr presents broadly on pain-related topics to interdisciplinary geriatric audiences across the country and the world, and has numerous publications on the topic of geriatric pain, including an annual handbook, Geriatrics at Your Fingertips, and is editor of a guidebook, Improving the Lives of Older Adults with Persistent Pain: An Interdisciplinary Guide. Dr. Herr is an active member of several professional organizations related to geriatric pain, including the American Society for Pain Management Nurses (ASPMN), the American Geriatric Society (AGS). The American Society (APS), and the International Association for the Study of Pain (IASP). She completed service on the Board of Directors for the American Society for Pain Management Nursing (ASPMN) and the American Pain Society (APS), and is currently serving on the Board of Directors for the American Geriatrics Society (AGS). She served on the expert panels of the AGS to develop national clinical practice guidelines for chronic/persistent pain management in older adults. Dr. Herr was honored with the Nurse Exemplar Award from the ASPMN (2003) in recognition of her outstanding contributions to the field of pain management nursing, was the recipient of the Elizabeth Narcessian Award for Outstanding Educational Achievements in professional education in the field of pain by the APS (2005), and received the award for Nurse Excellence in Pain Management of the Older Adult from the ASPMN (2006). She is a Fellow in the American Academy of Nursing and the American Geriatric Society.

Dr. Jensen is a visiting research assistant professor with the Schroeder Center for Healthcare Policy and adjunct assistant professor of psychology at the College of William and Mary. She obtained her Ph.D. in Human Development & Family Studies, with a specialty in gerontology, from the University of Delaware. She is active with the Gerontological Society of America, the Southern Gerontological Society and the Alzheimer's Association. She is a certified trainer for the Alzheimer's Association where she conducts sessions on dementia care for nursing staff in long-term care facilities. Her research interests focus on elder care and dementia, methods for community assessments, and home and community-based support services. Most recently, she received funding from the Alzheimer's and Related Diseases Research Award Fund to assess the role of healthcare providers and family members in caring for persons with memory loss. As an instructor, she strives to help her students develop a better appreciation for issues facing older adults and their families.

Sarah H. Kagan holds a primary academic appointment as Professor - Clinician Educator and is the Ralston House Term Professor of Gerontological Nursing. Her clinical appointment is as Clinical Nurse Specialist in the Abramson Cancer Center at the University of Pennsylvania, where she offers advanced nursing consultation to patients, their families, nurses, and physicians on matters of symptom management, psychosocial oncology, geriatric oncology, and interdisciplinary team work. Dr. Kagan's secondary faculty appointment is in the Department of Otorhinolaryngology: Head and Neck Surgery, where her particular consultative focus is on clinical research and care of patients who have head and neck cancers and are suffering complex wounds and other challenging symptoms. Dr. Kagan teaches students across the baccalaureate, masters and doctoral programs in the School of Nursing as well as offering lectures and preceptorships in the School of Medicine. She is the director of the Nursing Undergraduate Honors Program and the Penn-UK Study Abroad Programs in the School of Nursing. Dr. regularly teaches two undergraduate honors courses "Sweet Little Old Ladies and Sandwiched Daughters" and "Ageing, Beauty, and Sexuality". In addition, she directs the advanced qualitative methods course in the PhD program. Dr. Kagan teaches a course in comparative health systems and elder care in conjunction with the Departments of Community Medicine and Nursing Studies at the University of Hong Kong. Dr. Kagan's program of clinical research is centered on human experience and illness, with a focus on symptom experience for older adults particularly those who have cancer. Her second book - forthcoming from Penn Press in 2009 - is entitled Cancer in the Lives of Older Americans: Blessings and Battles. Dr. Kagan commonly examines the experience of cancer for older adults through narrative inquiry using head and neck cancer as a model of cancer in older adults. Her current explorations include a collaborative project to understand embodiment in younger and older individuals who have oral tongue cancer. Dr. Kagan welcomes undergraduate students, in particular, as collaborators in her research.

Harry R. Moody is Director of Academic Affairs for AARP in Washington, DC. He also serves as Senior Associate with the International Longevity Center-USA and is a Senior Fellow of Civic Ventures. Dr. Moody is the author of over 100 scholarly articles, as well as a number of books including: Abundance of Life: Human Development Policies for an Aging Society (Columbia University Press, 1988); Ethics in an Aging Society (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1992); and Aging: Concepts and Controversies, a gerontology textbook now in its 3rd edition. His most recent book, The Five Stages of the Soul, was published by Doubleday Anchor Books (1997) and has been translated into seven languages worldwide. A graduate of Yale (1967) and a Ph.D. in philosophy from Columbia University (1973), Dr. Moody taught philosophy at Columbia, Hunter College, New York University, and the University of California at Santa Cruz. From 1999 to 2001 he served as National Program Director of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation's Faith in Action and, from 1992 to 1999, was Executive Director of the Brookdale Center at Hunter College. Before coming to Hunter, he served as Administrator of Continuing Education Programs for the Citicorp Foundation and later as Co-Director of the National Aging Policy Center of the National Council on Aging in Washington, DC. Harry Moody is known nationally for his work in older adult education and recently stepped down as Chairman of the Board of Elderhostel. He has also been active in the field of biomedical ethics and holds appointment as an Adjunct Associate of the Hastings Center. In recent years he has been an invited speaker at Yale, Stanford, Notre Dame, Brown, the University of Yokohama, and the Chattauqua Institution. He has frequently been interviewed on TV and radio about Elderhostel and personal growth in the second half of life.

Greg O’Neill, PhD, is director of the National Academy on an Aging Society, a Washington, DC, think tank on population and aging issues and the policy institute of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA). Dr. O’Neill specializes in the demographics of aging and civic engagement. His publications include “The State of Aging and Health in America,” a national and state-by-state report card on healthy aging and the recent article, “The Baby Boom Age Wave: Success or Tsunami?” that appears in Boomer Bust? Economic and Political Issues of the Graying Society (Praeger, 2008). Dr. O’Neill is the co-editor of Public Policy & Aging Report, the Academy’s signature publication.  For the past five years, he has directed GSA’s Civic Engagement in an Older America project, an initiative funded by The Atlantic Philanthropies to advance the issue of older adult civic engagement in the research and public policy arena. Dr. O’Neill received his PhD degree in sociology from Duke University with a concentration in population studies.

Dr. Prohaska has more than 20 years’ experience in gerontological research. He has been the principal investigator of several federally funded research studies and co-investigator on many others. He is the principal investigator of a National Institute on Aging Gerontological Public Health Training Program for pre- and post-doctoral fellows. During the past nine years, Dr. Prohaska's research has focused on community-based health promotion interventions with minority older adult populations. He has been principal investigator of the UIC Center for Health Interventions in Minority Elderly (CHIME) and co-principal investigator of the Midwest Roybal Center for Health Maintenance, both funded by the National Institute on Aging. He is currently a member of the National Advisory Committee to the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation on Health and Physical Activity in Adults 50 years and older. He has published several papers examining barriers and facilitators to physical activity adherence and is interested in the dissemination of evidence-based interventions for older populations.

Don Redfoot has worked for thirteen years as a Strategic Policy Advisor in AARP’s Public Policy Institute. He conducts and supervises public policy research on domestic and international issues related to assisted living, long-term care financing options, migration and long-term care workforce issues, and reverse mortgages. Previously, Don served eight years as a lobbyist for AARP on housing and assisted living issues. He also spent a year and a half with the House of Representative’s Special Committee on Aging and taught for two years with the University of Maryland’s European Division. Don earned a Ph.D. in Sociology from Rutgers University in 1981, an M.A. in the Social Sciences from the University of Chicago, and a B.A. in Sociology from Westminster College (PA). He conducted post-doctoral research at Duke University’s Center for the Study of Aging and Human Development under grants from the National Institute for Mental Health and the National Institute on Aging. He has published numerous articles and reports on aging issues in scholarly, practitioner, public policy, and popular publications.

Barbara A. Soniat, PhD, MSW, is an associate professor at the Catholic University of America’s National Catholic School of Social Service (NCSSS) and director of its Center on Global Aging. She teaches MSW practice courses and a course on clinical social work practice with older adults, and she is co-principal investigator for a Council on Social Work Education gero-ed project. Dr. Soniat also serves as a commissioner for the American Bar Association’s Commission on Law and Aging. She has worked in the fields of social work and gerontology for over 30 years. For over 20 years, her career effectively integrated clinical practice, research, teaching, and interdisciplinary field-based education of professional students. Dr. Soniat is the former long-time director of the George Washington University (GWU) and IONA Senior Services geriatric assessment and case management programs, where for over two decades she implemented collaborative partnerships between a university medical center (GWU), a public agency (the Washington, DC, Office on Aging), a private agency (IONA Senior Services), and several schools of social work (NCSSS, Howard University, University of Maryland, Virginia Commonwealth University, University of Pennsylvania, and University of Alabama) and departments of psychiatry (GWU and Georgetown University). Through these endeavors, she has worked with many social workers, case managers, student learners, and colleagues to develop, test, modify, and refine models and tools for education, research, and practice with vulnerable older adults. Dr. Soniat has a strong interest in pursuing answers to practice-generated research questions. She is a featured speaker at national, international, regional, and local conferences.

Karen Stein, Ph.D. (University of Delaware, 1984) has been a faculty member at the University of Delaware since 1978.  She is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Urban Affairs and Public Policy (SUAPP) and the Principle Investigator for UD's partnership in the federally-funded National Center on Elder Abuse.  Dr. Stein has served as the Faculty Director of the Center for Educational Effectiveness since 2009 and the Faculty Director of the Office of Educational Assessment since 2005.  She spent five years as the Director of the Leadership Program in SUAPP and twelve years prior to that as the Chair of the Department of Textiles, Design and Consumer Economics (renamed the Department of Consumer Studies).  Dr. Stein was appointed a Fellow of the Salzburg Seminar and participated in a session on "The Challenges of An Aging Society" held in Salzburg, Austria.

Dr. Sterns received his Ph.D. in Life-Span Developmental Psychology from West Virginia University in 1971. His major areas of interest include industrial gerontology, life-span development, training and career development. He is Director of the Institute for Life- Span Development and Gerontology. Courses typically taught include psychology of adulthood and aging, industrial/gerontological psychology, and undergraduate psychology courses. His publications have appeared in many gerontology journals including Experimental Aging Research, The Counseling Psychologist, Journal of Gerontology, Generations, Journal of Applied Gerontology. He has served on the editorial board of Psychology and Aging, The Gerontologist, and Journal of Women and Aging and serves on the editorial boards of Experimental Aging Research and Research on Aging. He is a Fellow of the American Psychology Association, Gerontological Society of America and the American Psychological Society. Current research includes training of adult and older adult workers, personality factors, and retirement adjustment and satisfaction, as well as personality factors in housing choices in retirement. Other research includes alcohol treatment and aging, and life planning issues for older adults with mental retardation.

Robyn I. Stone, a noted researcher and leading international authority on aging and long-term care policy, joined LeadingAge to establish and oversee the LeadingAge Center for Applied Research. Stone came to LeadingAge from the International Longevity Center-USA in New York, N.Y., where she was executive director and chief operating officer. Previously, she worked for the Federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research (now known as the Agency for Health care Research and Quality). Stone also served the White House as deputy assistant secretary for disability, aging and long-term care policy and as acting assistant secretary for aging in the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services under the Clinton administration. She was a senior researcher at the National Center for Health Services as well as at Project Hope's Center for Health Affairs. Stone was on the staff of the 1989 Bipartisan Commission on Comprehensive Health Care and the 1993 Clinton administration's Task Force on Health Care Reform. Stone holds a doctorate in public health from the University of California, Berkeley.

Dr. James Swan received his Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1981 and since 2004 has been a Professor of Applied Gerontology at the University of North Texas, teaching in doctoral, masters, and undergraduate programs in Applied Gerontology. He has developed strong grant and contract-funded research in the area of long-term care finance and policy, and is currently developing new research streams in: physical activity in the aged; senior-ready communities, and global aging, focusing on comparison of U.S. and Mexican services for elders. Dr. Swan has maintained a steady and active publication record for three decades, annually presents at juried professional and scientific conferences, and his publications have appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals and in several books. He is active in the Gerontological Health Section of the American Public Health Association and is one of that section’s APHA Governing Councilors; a member of the Gerontological Society of America and of its Social Research, Policy, and Practice Section; and an Executive Board member and Governing Councilor of the Texas Public Health Association.

Dr. Wetle is Associate Dean of Medicine for Public Health and Public Policy, and is Professor of Community Health. She was most recently Deputy Director, National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health. Formerly, she was Director for the Braceland Center for Mental Health and Aging at the Institute of Living; and Associate Professor of Community Medicine and Health Care, University of Connecticut Health Center, School of Medicine. She is former Associate Director of the Division on Aging and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Harvard Medical School. At Yale, she was Director of the Program in Long Term Care Administration and Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Public Health. She previously worked in federal government as a Social Policy Analyst for the Administration on Aging, DHHS, and in local government as director of an Area Agency on Aging in Portland, Oregon. She is Past-President of the Gerontological Society of America and current President of the American Federation for Aging Research. She recently was awarded a Docteure Honoris Causa by the University of Geneva and the Donald P. Kent Award by the Gerontological Society of America.

Joshua M. Wiener, PhD, Distinguished Fellow and program director of RTI's Aging, Disability, and Long-Term Care Program, appointed June 2003 (as Senior Fellow), is the author or editor of eight books and over 100 articles on health care for older people, people with disabilities, long-term services and supports, Medicaid, health reform, health care rationing, and maternal and child health. Dr. Wiener is currently involved in studies of the Hawaiian long-term care system, the long-term care workforce, risk of institutionalization, long-term care awareness and planning, and Medicare and Medicaid dual eligibles. He is also co-director of the Administration on Aging-funded Alzheimer's Disease Supportive Services Program National Resource Center. Prior to coming to RTI International, Dr. Wiener did policy analysis and research for the Urban Institute, the Brookings Institution, the Health Care Financing Administration, the Massachusetts Department of Public Health, the Congressional Budget Office, the New York State Moreland Act Commission on Nursing Homes and Residential Facilities, and the New York City Department of Health.

Brian de Vries is a professor of Gerontology at San Francisco State University. He received his doctorate in life-span developmental psychology from the University of British Columbia in 1988 and was a post-doctoral fellow at both Simon Fraser University in Vancouver and the University of Southern California. He is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and member of the leadership council of the American Society on Aging (ASA) and co-Chair of the Lesbian and Gay Aging Issues Network constituent group. Most recently, Dr. de Vries has become a policy advisor for the AARP, California. Dr. de Vries is incoming editor of the journal, Sexuality Research and Social Policy, he is former associate editor of The International Journal of Aging and Human Development (2000-2006). He has served as guest editor of Omega: Journal of Death and Dying (1997 and 2004) and a guest co-editor of Generations (2001). In addition, he has edited four books, including Kinship Bereavement in Later Life (1997), End of Life Issues (1999), Narrative Gerontology (2001), and Gay and Lesbian Aging (2004); he has authored or or co-authored over 70 journal articles and book chapters and he has given over 100 presentations to professional audiences on a variety of topics such as the social and psychological well-being of midlife and older LGBT persons, friendships and social relationships across the adult life course, as well as end of life issues and bereavement.