Family Re-Union 9: Families and Seniors Across Generations

Panelist, Presenters

Speaker Biographies

Kenneth Apfel is commissioner of the United States Social Security Administration (SSA). He was nominated in May 1997 by President Clinton and subsequently confirmed by the United States Senate. Commissioner Apfel heads an agency that delivers benefits to more than 50 million people each month. He is responsible for approximately 65,000 employees who, among other responsibilities, serve the needs of 26 million visitors each year to SSA’s 1,300 field offices and answer 60 million phone calls annually. Commissioner Apfel has significantly strengthened the policy, planning and public education activities at the Social Security Administration. He has also played a leadership role in efforts to strengthen childhood disability programs and to enable persons with disabilities to return to work. From 1997 to 1999, he also served as a member of the President’s Management Council. Commissioner Apfel came to SSA from the office of management and budget in the executive office of the president where he served as the associate director for human resources.

Michael L. Benjamin, M.P.H., is the executive director of the National Council on Family Relations, following five years as executive director of the Institute for Mental Health Initiatives in Washington, D.C. He has a broad and extensive background in mental health promotion and mental health service delivery, working on family issues including work and family, mental health and the family, fatherhood, substance abuse and violence prevention, and cultural diversity. He has served on numerous boards in Washington, D.C., and nationally. He has professional links with policy makers and professional associations, and has published articles on mental health and substance abuse.

Lisa F. Berkman, Ph.D., is professor of Epidemiology and the Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Health and Social Behavior at the Harvard School of Public Health, and the director of the center for society and health at Harvard University. She is a teacher, administrator and researcher having served as principal investigator in numerous research projects including the MacArthur Research Program in Successful Aging. Recent areas of study include psychosocial interventions in stroke recovery and enhanced recovery in coronary heart disease. She is a prolific author of original investigations, peer-reviewed publications, and books, including the 1999 Social Epidemiology: The Social Determinants of Health. She is a member of several professional societies and has received a number of honors including a Senior Fulbright Scholarship and University of California, Berkeley, school of public health alumna of the year award.

Irene Bohn is a senior volunteer with Generations of Hope, and a resident of Hope Meadows in Rantoul, IL. She grew up on a farm in East Central Illinois as one of nine children. She was a nun for 27 years and taught school for 37 years. After leaving the convent she married a school superintendent. She greatly enjoys her mentoring relationship with Brandon Laws and his family.

Elizabeth Brawley is president of Design Concepts Unlimited, an interior design firm dedicated to improving the design of living environments for older adults. For more than 15 years, Ms. Brawley has been an interior designer and consultant for a variety of projects and settings which serve the older population, ranging from independent living, to adult day health care, residential care and assisted living, skilled nursing and Alzheimer’s special care settings. She approaches design as not an incidental concern, but an integral part of a well-balanced approach to care. For example, her designs and specifications are adapted to normal age-related changes resulting in sensory loss, limited range of motion, decreased mobility and increased sensitivities to toxicity. Since 1998, she has taught at the Graduate School of Design at Harvard University. Ms. Brawley is a member of the National Board of Directors for the Alzheimer’s Association. She is also the author of the recently published Designing for Alzheimer’s Disease: Strategies for Better Care Environments. In 1998, Ms. Brawley was awarded the Polsky Prize by the American Society of Interior Designers in recognition of outstanding research in the field of interior design.

Susan Brooks is associate professor of the Practice of Law at Vanderbilt School of Law where she currently teaches and supervises the Juvenile Practice Clinic in which students represent parents and children in cases in juvenile court, most of which are child protection proceedings. In addition, Professor Brooks is the co-founder of Tennessee Relative Caregiver Coalition, which led a successful legislative initiative to enact pilot program for relative caregivers in Tennessee and is a consultant to Mental Health Code (Title 33) Revision Commission on Mental Health Issues Related to Children.

Robert N. Butler, M.D., is President and Chief Executive Officer of the International Longevity Center-USA, Ltd., and Professor of Geriatrics in the Henry L. Schwartz Department of Geriatrics and Adult Development at the Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City. From 1975 to 1982, he was the founding director of the National Institute on Aging of the National Institutes of Health. He founded the first department of geriatrics in a U.S. medical school and cofounded the International Longevity Center (ILC) which studies the impact of longevity upon society and its institutions. He won the Pulitzer prize for his 1976 book Why Survive? Being Old in America. He chaired the advisory committee for the White House Conference on Aging in 1995.

Donna Butts is executive director of Generations United, the only national membership organization focused solely on promoting intergenerational policies, strategies and programs. Generations United fosters communication and collaboration and brings together groups representing children and youth as well as elders and grandparents. The organization is supported by more than 100 national organizations, numerous state and local organizations, and hundreds of individuals. She has more than 25 years of experience working with non-profit organizations, including the National Organization on Adolescent Pregnancy, Parenting and Prevention; the National 4-H Council; Covenant House; and the YWCA. In 1998, US Department of Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala appointed Ms. Butts to serve on the National Kinship Care Advisory Panel.

Lillian Carson, D.S.W., L.C.S.W., an authority on child development, parenting and grandparenting, is the author of the Parent’s Choice Award winning books: The Essential Grandparent: A Guide to Making a Difference and The Essential Grandparent’s Guide To Divorce: Making a Difference in the Family. She is a National Spokesperson for American’s Promise, Grandparent Moderator for the United Nations Global Meeting of Generations project and a lecturer. A psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles and Santa Barbara, California, she has worked with adults, children, and families for 30 years. Dr. Carson has created The Essential Grandparent Reading Circle at www.essentialgrandparent.com.

Christine K. Cassel, MD, MACP, is chairman of the department of geriatrics and adult development of Mount Sinai Medical Center and professor of geriatrics and medicine. Her work has brought together the biomedical, ethical, and policy issues in general internal medicine and geriatrics. Dr. Cassel has assumed numerous national leadership roles including service as the past president of the American College of Physicians, the Physicians for Social Responsibility, and the Society for Health and Human Values. Among Dr. Cassel’s numerous publications are Geriatric Medicine, Approaching Death: Improving Care at the End of Life, and A Practical Guide to Aging. She has served as a consultant to the Veterans Administration, the Health Care Financing Administration (HCFA), the National Institute on Aging, the Agency for Health Care Policy and Research, and the United States Congress.

Miriam Charnow is director of Family Friends Resource Center at the National Council on the Aging, where she developed and administers 50 Intergenerational Family Friends projects nationally, overseeing all publications and informational materials as well as providing training and technical assistance to these projects. She has served as the director of the Energy Crisis Assistance Program and deputy director of the Office of Energy Conservation Program. She played an early role in the development of the Empire State College in New York State and served both in the federal Department of Education and the Peace Corps.

Evelyn Davis, MD, assistant clinical professor of Pediatrics and clinical director of the Harlem Hospital Center-Board of Education Therapeutic Nursery School, provides primary medical and psychiatric care to patients and serves as the developmental specialist for the pediatric resource center, designed to provide services to at-risk children and their families. In 1993, Dr. Davis launched the Harlem Hospital Center’s Grandparent Program with the support of private funders. This demonstration project addresses the full range of medical and behavioral problems of cocaine- and alcohol-exposed children while giving their grandparents the tools with which to care for them. Dr. Davis has been a presenter at numerous conferences and testified before Congressional committees.

Robert Dittus, M.D., M.P.H., is the Albert and Bernard Werthan Professor of Medicine, Chief of the Division of General Internal Medicine, and director of the Center for Health Services Research at Vanderbilt University. He is also director of the Institute for Community Health, a joint effort of Vanderbilt University and Meharry Medical College. Finally, Dr. Dittus currently serves as senior quality scholar and director of the Geriatric Research, Education and Clinical Center at the VA Tennessee Valley Healthcare system. The Geriatric Center’s initiatives focus on disease prevention, improved and safer medication utilization, and quality improvement. Dr. Dittus is a noted expert in clinical economics and outcomes research and has conducted many studies that have led to improvements in the process and outcomes of care for children, adults and seniors. For example, he developed a simulation model for colon cancer that demonstrated the cost-effectiveness of screening for disease prevention even in people over 80 years of age.

Catherine Dodd is executive director of the Woodbine Community Organization CDC, a position she has held since 1990. Under her direction the Woodbine Community Organization has grown to be one of the largest CDCs in Nashville, Tenn. In 1991, the organization began its single-family home ownership program. In 1992, it expanded into housing for seniors which has been one of its most successful programs.

Brenda Krause Eheart, Ph.D., is executive director of generations of hope ("Hope"), a non-profit corporation dedicated to improving the lives of children through adoption and the establishment of caring intergenerational communities. Dr. Eheart is also the director of hope for the children research and policy Program in the Institute of Government and Public Affairs and a Research Specialist with the Department of sociology at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana. At the University, she seeks to connect social scientific research and policy studies with child development and successful aging in intergenerational neighborhoods. Dr. Eheart and Hope have received many honors including President Clinton’s 2002 Excellence in Adoption Award (1998), the "Use Your Life Award" from Oprah Winfrey (June, 2000) and HUD’s Regional Best Practices Award (2000). In 1996, Ted Koppel featured Dr. Eheart and Hope on Nightline. Her work has also been highlighted in The New York Times and other major newspapers as well as on ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN and PBS.

Thomas Endres, is director of community service for the American Association of Retired Persons ("AARP"). He is responsible for developing new approaches to involving AARP members in community service and finding ways to direct their enormous potential to help solve community problems and meet local needs. Mr. Endres is the former director of the National Senior Service Corps of the Corporation for National Service. In that position, he oversaw a network of more than a half million people over 55 years of age who served in over 72,000 public and private organizations. He previously held public offices as state director, district director, and regional operations manager for service and volunteer programs throughout the New England States. Mr. Endres was a founding member of the Greater Portland Voluntary Action Center, the University of Maine Community Leadership Program and the Center for Grieving Children. He also served as a Peace Corps volunteer in Columbia, S.A., and as a Training Director preparing Peace Corps volunteers for service in Columbia and Peru.

Martha Farrell Erickson, Ph.D., director of the University of Minnesota’s Children, youth and Family Consortium, promotes university-community partnerships that link research to practice and policy for the well-being of children and families. Her longitudinal research on parent-child attachment and strategies for breaking intergenerational cycles of abuse has informed the work of health care providers, family support professionals, and policy makers in the U.S. and abroad. Dr. Erickson is author of Infants, Toddlers, and Families: A Framework for Support and Intervention (Erickson & Kurz-Riemer; 1999). She also is author of many journal articles and book chapters, as well as the weekly parenting column "Growing Concerns," featured in family publications across the country.

Marc Freedman is president of Civic Ventures and co-founder of The Experience Corps. Formerly a Vice President of Public/Private Ventures and a Visiting fellow of Kings College, University of London, he has served as an adviser to various organizations, including the Corporation for National Service, the Pillsbury Corporation, the Carnegie Council on Adolescent Development and the Ewing M. Kauffman Foundation. Freedman, whose articles have appeared in prominent journals and periodicals, recently completed a book entitled Prime Time: How Baby Boomers Will Revolutionize Retirement and Transform America. In addition, Freedman has testified before several Congressional committees on topics such as the aging of America, mentoring, juvenile and national service.

Charles Gray was a school principal and coach in the Miami, Fla., public schools for 32 years until his retirement in 1981. After he retired, Mr. Gray helped found the Richmond Heights Retirees, a group of approximately 16 retirees from different professions who volunteer to mentor 25-30 junior high school students at the Richmond Heights Middle School. Every week the retirees meet with at-risk students at the school, and every month the students and retirees go on an excursion together. The group was founded to give elders an opportunity to pass on their experiences and lend support to the youth of their own neighborhood. The Richmond Heights Retirees have also helped empower the students to work with police and local government to address community problems and concerns such as public safety in parks. Mr. Gray also helped found People United to Lead the Struggle for Equality (PULSE). In addition, he has continued to referee youth football, basketball and track events. Mr. Gray is a member of the executive board of the Boys and Girls Club of America, Dade County chapter. He has received numerous awards including the Living Legends Award from the National Caucus and Center on Black Aged, the Bronze Keystone Award from the Boys and Girls Club of America and the Distinguished Retired Educators Award from the Miami Alliance of Black School Educators.

Angela Groh, a junior at SCMT (Sheffield, Chapin, Meserzey, Thornton) High School in Thornton, Iowa, has been involved for two and a half years in the Teens Teach Internet Skills (TTIS) program, a collaborative effort between Medicare (Health Care Financing Administration HCFA) and USDA’s Cooperative Extension Service designed to assist seniors in accessing the Medicare Web site. Angela began teaching computer skills as member of the Iowa Technology Team, a project of 4H, in which students repair and recycle computers for senior citizen centers and update Web sites. She has taught computer classes to senior citizens, to other teens and to county extension agents across Iowa. She has also been working with teens and adults to expand the TTIS program to other areas of the United States through a coalition called "Access the Future," aimed at ending the digital divide. While interested in computers since fourth grade, Angela finds government and history most interesting and hopes to work with people to "learn and share with them."

Val J. Halamandaris, J.D., is the President of the National Association for Home Care, representing the interests of the ill, dying and disabled and those who care for them at home. He is a founder and partner in the Center for Health Care Law, a public interest law firm advocating for the rights of the elderly, the disabled and chronically ill children. In the early 1990’s, he implemented HealthRIGHT, an electronic petition of government, providing citizens input to the government on health care issues. He is the author of numerous books, Congressional reports, and legislation. He worked as a Congressional staff member for 20 years, authoring major reports on many health care topics including nursing home care, health insurance, elder abuse, Medicaid and long-term care.

Neal Halfon, MD, MPH, is professor of pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Professor of Community Health Sciences in the School of Public Health at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). Dr. Halfon is currently director of the UCLA Center for Healthier Children, Families and Communities, and director of the Child and Family Health Program in the School of Public Health at UCLA. He also directs the federally funded Maternal and Child Health Bureau’s National Center for Infancy and Early Childhood Health Policy Research. Dr. Halfon has published investigations concerning many childhood health-related topics including immunizations for inner-city children, health care needs of children in foster care, trends in chronic illnesses for children, and the delivery of health care services for children with asthma. Dr. Halfon was recently named co-chair of the research agenda-setting conference for the Association for Health Services Research. He also serves on the Pediatric Measurement Advisory Panel for the National Committee on Quality Assurance and the Foundation for Accountability.

Janet Hartey is executive director of Coastal Caregivers in Point Pleasant Beach, N.J. Coastal Caregivers provides free, supportive home care services to the frail, elderly, disabled and homebound. Ms. Hartey recruits and trains volunteers from a coalition of congregations and communities to help seniors and disabled individuals live independently and safely in their homes. The volunteers have become advocates in the community for those they serve. Ms. Hartey is currently working with public officials on legislation that would provide better protection for seniors receiving volunteer care in New Jersey.

Nancy Henkin, Ph.D., is the founder and executive director of Temple University’s Center for Intergenerational Learning. Established in 1979, the Center is dedicated to strengthening communities by bringing generations together to meet the needs of individuals and families throughout the life cycle. The Center achieves its mission through model program development, training and technical assistance, research and evaluation, and materials development. Over the past 21 years, she has developed a wide range of cross-age programs and has consulted with numerous local, national and international organizations in the aging, youth and educational fields. Dr. Henkin has produced a wide variety of audiovisual and written materials and published articles in aging, social work and education journals. She was co-editor of the Winter 1998-99 issue of the American Society on Aging’s journal, "Generations."

Jan Hively coordinates the University of Minnesota’s Vital Aging Initiative. The purpose of the initiative is to connect adults age 55 and over with education programs that support their employability, self-sufficiency, community participation and personal enrichment. Through her work Ms. Hively seeks to promote intergenerational learning across the boundaries of home, school, workplace and community. She previously started a variety of educational non-profit organizations including Elder’s Wisdom, Children’s Song: Community Celebration of Place and the Youth Trust. Ms. Hively recently completed survey research concerning "Productive Aging in Rural Minnesota."

Jeanne Hoyt and her husband, William, are members of the Citizen Volunteer Patrol (CVP), a unit of the Redlands Police Department in Redlands, California. The duties of the CVPs include visibility for crime deterrence, traffic control, vacation house checks, escort services and issuing citations for code enforcement. Ms. Hoyt’s training included 12 weeks at the Redlands Police Academy and nine weeks of field training. She is also the activities chairman for the Redlands Police Department. Ms. Hoyt and her husband volunteer for an average of 60 hours each month for a total of more than 8,000 hours a year. She was previously a dancer on Broadway. In 1998, she received the Meritorious Service Medal from the Redlands Police Department.

William Hoyt is a member of the Citizen Volunteer Patrol (CVP), a unit of the Redlands Police Department in Redlands, California. Mr. Hoyt joined the CVP in 1994. As a CVP member, he helps the community, gets other seniors involved, and stays physically and mentally active. He previously taught physical education at San Bernadino and Grafton Hills colleges and coached track, football, cross-country running and wrestling. In addition to his volunteer work, Mr. Hoyt and his wife are active seniors who ski 20 to 30 days a season, mountain bike, rock-climb, kayak and take trips down the Colorado River. In 1998, he received the Meritorious Service Medal from the Redlands Police Department.

Gail Hunt is Executive Director of the National Alliance for Caregiving (NAC), a non-profit coalition of more than 20 national groups dedicated to conducting national research, outreach and public awareness programs to support family caregivers and the professionals who serve them. Alliance members include AARP, the American Society on Aging, the National Council on Aging and the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs. The Alliance’s projects include the first recent national caregiver survey and several studies of the impact of caregiving on the workplace. Ms. Hunt was previously president of Gibson-Hunt Associates, an aging services consulting firm for 14 years. While in that position, she conducted corporate eldercare research, developed training for caregivers, and designed a corporate eldercare program. Ms. Hunt was on the steering Committee for the U.S. committee for the 1999 UN Year of the Older Person. She was also an official observer at the 1995 White House Conference on Aging and the UN NGO Forum on Women in Bejing. Ms. Hunt’s eldercare work has been recognized in the Wall Street Journal, USA Today and other publications as well as on CNN and MSNBC.

Richard Jacobsen is director of the Department of Social Services in Mecklenberg County, N.C., and the core business leader for Health and Human Services in the county. As such, he is responsible both for directing the department and for coordinating the policies, budgets, and operations of the department and three other units: Area Mental Health/Substance Abuse/Developmental Disabilities Authority, the Public Health Department and the Veterans; Services Office. He has implemented both Work First, North Carolina’s welfare reform program, and Just One Call, a unique referral service for seniors, disabled adults, and their caregivers.

Lillian Johnson, LCSW, MSW, is a private consultant, recently retired from her founding position as director of the Kinship Support Network at Edgewood Center for Children and Families, the private partner to the Department of Human Services. Currently she is consultant to the State of California, providing technical assistance to 11 California counties under a state Kinship Technical Assistance Program. Ms. Johnson has more than 35 years of experience in social services and in serving fragile families. Accomplishments include developing a separate shelter care school in San Francisco for dependent children, implementing the "foster-adopt" program in San Francisco and developing a "fragile infant" foster care program in a public agency for severely emotionally disturbed children. Prior to working with Edgewood, Ms. Johnson was the program director for the San Francisco Department of Social Services.

Jill Kagan, MPH, is chair of the National Respite Coalition, the policy division of the National Respite Network, and is also a private policy consultant to local, state and national associations in the areas of family support, child care, child health, and other family policy issues. Currently, Ms. Kagan is chair of the FRIENDS National Advisory Committee, which advises the National Resource Center on federally funded Community-Based Family Resource and Support Programs (Title II of the Child Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act). Prior to this work, Ms. Kagan served as deputy staff director to the Select Committee on Children, Youth and Families, U.S. House of Representatives; the committee was charged with providing an ongoing assessment of the conditions of American children and families and making recommendations to Congress and the public about how to improve public and private policies.

Jenny Keyser, Ph.D., is associate director of the Children, Youth & Family Consortium at the University of Minnesota. In that position, she works to foster university-community partnerships for children and families in Minnesota. She was previously program director for the Minnesota Humanities Commission, a state affiliate of the National Endowment for the Humanities. While at the Humanities Commission, she designed and administered a nationally recognized professional development program for K-12 teachers, and published an anthology of multicultural literature. Dr. Keyser’s work experience also included administration of a grant program that provided funds for civic and cultural organizations, program development for the Minnesota Literacy Council and college and university teaching.

Rafael Lantigua, M.D., is the associate director of the division of general medicine at the department of medicine, and the director of general medicine outpatient services at New York Presbyterian Hospital. He is also deputy director of the Taub Institute at Columbia University and the director of the Columbia Center for the Active life of Minority Elders, a resource center for minority aging research sponsored by the National Institute of Aging. Dr. Lantigua has extensively researched issues that affect the quality of life in the minority population. For example, he served as the principal investigator in the National Institute of Aging’s study of issues of quality of life affecting minority elderly. He is also currently co-investigator in a study of the genetics of Alzheimer’s disease in Hispanic families. Dr. Lantigua is co-founder and chairman of the Board of Alianza Dominicana Inc., the major community-based organization serving the Dominican community in the United States. He has served on the boards of many non-profit organizations including the Puerto Rican Legal Defense Fund, the Puerto Rican/Hispanic Institute for the Elderly and the Latino Commission on AIDS.

Lorna Lathram is Executive Director of the Omidyar Foundation in Alameda, California. The Omidyar Foundation is dedicated to building communities through civic engagement based upon intergenerational programs. Seniors are seen as important assets of a community, to be encouraged and supported in building and maintaining sound caring relationships across the generations. Ms. Lathram began her career with a major multinational chemical firm and helped launch new technologies in communities. She has also worked with start-up organizations in developing proprietary software applications in niche markets.

Brandon Laws came to Hope Meadows in July of 1995 and was placed in Jeanette’s home along with his older sister, Shannon. Since forming a loving relationship with his senior mentor and tutor, Irene Bohn, he has greatly improved his school performance, and is proud of bringing home all A’s and B’s and participating in cross-country events. He recently completed a news broadcasting program in his school.

Jeanette Laws Jeannette is an adoptive mother of three including Brandon, and foster mother of one. She has been involved with the Generations of HOPE program in Rantoul, IL since April of 1995. She works as a part-time counselor at an alternative high school in Champaign, IL.

Carol Levine joined the United Hospital Fund in New York City in 1996. There she directs the Families and Health Care Project which focuses on developing partnerships between health care professionals and family caregivers, who provide most of the long-term and chronic care to elderly, seriously ill, or disabled relatives. She continues to direct The Orphan Project: Families and Children in the HIV Epidemic and was director of the Citizens Commission on AIDS in New York City from 1987-1991. In 1993, Ms. Levine was awarded a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship for her work in AIDS policy and ethics. She has also written and edited a number of books and articles including, Always On Call: When Illness Turns Families into Caregivers, published in September of 2000.

Nancy B. Emerson Lombardo, Ph.D., a gerontologist and senior research scientist at the Wellesley College Center for Research on Women, has extensive policy and community program development experience focusing on Alzheimer’s Disease patients and their caregivers. She is the Principal Investigator (PI) for three grants: 1) a two-year national policy study of dementia caregiver interventions, 2) the Boston Foundation-funded effort to serve local Chinese persons with dementia and their families, and 3) a pilot clinical trial of acupuncture to treat anxiety and depression in persons with dementia. In the role of organizing and facilitating multidisciplinary project teams, Emerson Lombardo is subcontractor and Co-Investigator for 1) an Internet support program for Alzheimer’s caregivers, 2) the Boston University Alzheimer’s Disease Center, an outreach program for African Americans, and 3) a U.S. Veterans Administration study of assist vulnerable isolated elders with memory loss living alone. Her mother had Alzheimer’s disease for 25 years before her death in 1990.

Spero Manson, Ph.D., is professor and head of the division of American Indian and Alaska Native Programs of the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Colorado Health Services Center. He directs the National Center for American Indian and Alaska Native Mental Health Research. He also directs the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s Healthy Nations Initiative, a six year, $15 million effort to assist 15 Indian and native communities to reduce substance abuse by promoting comprehensive intervention strategies. In addition, Dr. Manson is responsible for a $1.2 million grant from the Administration on Aging that established the Native Elder Health Care Resource Center. He serves on the boards of many organizations including the National Institute of Mental Health, the Office of the Surgeon General, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and the Institute of Medicine. He has received numerous awards including the Rema Lapouse Mental Health Epidemiology Award from the American Public Health Association (1998) and the Hammer Award from Vice President Gore (1999).

Richard A. Margolin, MD, is an associate professor of psychiatry and radiology, and chief of the laboratory of geriatric neuroscience at Vanderbilt University Medical Center. Following residency training in nuclear medicine and psychiatry, Dr. Margolin founded Vanderbilt’s division of geriatric psychiatry and for 11 years developed the University’s clinical, research and teaching program in this field. Since July 1998, Dr. Margolin has focused intensively on innovative research in Alzheimer’s Disease (AD). Studies involve the integrated use of neuroimaging, genetic profiling and biochemical analysis. The main aim is to identify biological characteristics of the disease that can predict response to the many promising drug treatments being developed for AD.

Robert Mayer, Ph.D., is president of the Hulda B. and Maurice L. Rothschild Foundation. The Rothschild Foundation is a family philanthropy that seeks to improve the quality of life for older adults in the Chicago area. One of the Foundation’s programs contracts for over 1,000 visits a year by performing artists and cultural centers to skilled nursing facilities. Dr. Mayer is also chair of the Nathan Cummings Foundation in New York, an inter-generational family philanthropy that funds programs in the arts, environment, health care and Jewish life. He is also currently involved in creating a new executive development program for non-profit managers at the Northwestern University Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he is an adjunct professor. Dr. Mayer previously directed the management resources function of a Fortune 100 multi-national corporation, and founded a healthcare company. He serves on the executive committee of the Museum of Contemporary Art and on the boards of various organizations including the Illinois Arts Alliance, the University of Chicago Council for Biological Sciences, and the Pritzker School of Medicine.

Jack McConnell, M.D., is a consultant to bio-technology institutes and companies as well as major hospitals and health care institutes. His principle areas of expertise include high technology and its impact on health care, the program to map and sequence the human genome, and health care for the poor in the United States and abroad. Dr. McConnell is founder and chairman emeritus of the Volunteers in Medicine Clinic, a free health clinic that enlists retired medical personnel to provide care. He also founded the Volunteers in Medicine Institute, a non-profit organization that helps develop free health clinics for the unserved and underserved. He was previously director of clinical research at Lederle Laboratories, vice-president of new product development at McNeil Laboratories, and corporate director of advanced technology at Johnson and Johnson. Dr. McConnell has received numerous awards for his work, including South Carolina’s highest award, "The Order of the Palmetto."

Robin Mockenhaupt, Ph.D., is a senior program officer at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation where she works on health behavior and chronic disease management. Before joining the Foundation, Dr. Mockenhaupt worked as the acting director of the planning, development and evaluation department at the American Association of Retired Persons (AARP) in Washington, DC. While in that position, she directed the overall strategic planning and reporting for AARP’s field structures at regional and state levels. Prior to that, Dr. Mockenhaupt worked in other departments of the AARP including field operations, health advocacy services and the National Resource Center on Health Promotion and Aging. She also held positions at Focus Technologies, Inc., Washington DC; the National Center for Education in Maternal and Child Health, Georgetown University; and the health education and research & development departments at the National Health Screening Council, Bethesda, Md.

Bill Moyers, author, journalist, broadcaster and producer, has been called a "unique voice, still seeking new frontiers in television, daring to insist that viewing audiences are willing to think and learn" (Michael Sovern, President of Columbia University). In 1986, Mr. Moyers co-founded, with his wife Judy Davidson, Public Affairs Television, which has produced hundreds of hours of award-winning public television programming. Most recently, he produced On Our Own Terms, a PBS three-part documentary on end-of-life medicine, particularly "palliative care." Before establishing Public Affairs Television, Mr. Moyers was executive editor of "Bill Moyers’ Journal (on public television), senior new analyst for CBS Evening News, and chief correspondent for CBS Reports. He has received more than 30 Emmy awards from the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences, received numerous awards including the Charles Frankel Prize (now the National Humanities Medal) from the National Endowment for the Humanities for "outstanding contributions to American cultural life," and has authored a number of books. Prior to his broadcasting career, Mr. Moyers served as deputy director of the Peace Corps and special assistant to President Lyndon B. Johnson, including two years as White House press secretary.

Sally Newman, Ph.D., is a member of the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Education faculty and is founder and executive director of Generations Together: An Intergenerational Studies Program of the University of Pittsburgh. She is responsible for initiating intergenerational programs that annually involve more than 1,000 older adults and 10,000 children and youth in Allegheny County alone and have been replicated in communities across the United States. As an educator, Dr. Newman has developed and co-taught intergenerational courses on the rationale, structure, and outcomes of intergenerational initiatives in society. She has pioneered several intergenerational programs models, including intergenerational child care, a program that responds to the growing number of families needing child care and the decreasing number of quality child care settings available. She edited and co-authored the first textbook on intergenerational issues, titled Intergenerational Programs: Imperatives, Strategies, Impacts, Trends.

Kayt Norris is a Sophomore at Qunicy Senior High School in Quincy, Illinois. She is the president of her class, a cheerleader and in "natural helpers" debate team, theater guild, choir and ecology club. In third grade, Kayt started a volunteer group club called the Helping Hands Club that now boasts 150 members with over 10,000 service hours. Projects include planting a butterfly garden, a tulip garden, holding a Nickelodeo network "BIG HELP" and numerous other service projects for the community. The Helping Hands Club is now working on a series of 12 videos about famous Quincians who went on to have an impact on our nations, such as Arthur Pitney and Brigadier General Paul W. Tibbets. Kayt was an ambassador at the Disneyworld millennium dreamer conference in Florida and was asked to introduce President Clinton when he visited Quincy last January. Kayt dreams of attending Harvard or Georgetown Universities and aspires to become president of the United States.

Odacir Oliviera, Ph.D., is a medical Psychologist and clinical director of covenant senior health program. Covenant Senior Health delivers integrated medical, behavioral, and social services to seniors. It offers a variety of options including inpatient, outpatient, partial hospital and long term care services. Its patients are older adults experiencing emotional, cognitive, behavioral, and medical difficulties that impair functioning and diminish quality of life. Dr. Oliviera works to maintain inter-generational understanding that promotes personal freedom and active aging for seniors. He also helps families manage the emotional and financial implications of aging. Dr. Oliviera previously served as clinical director of the Peninsula Lighthouse Outpatient Services. He also co-founded the East Tennessee Baptist Hospital Pain Center. He has received numerous awards including the William E. Cole Memorial Award, presented by the Tennessee Association of Gerontology/ Geriatric Education and the Earl D. Caldwell Award, presented by the Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Disorders Association. He has authored many articles and Grandma and Grandpa Come Home (Psychological Services 1987).

Jory Peterson is executive director of University for Seniors, an institute for learning in retirement at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. University for Seniors is a humanities-centered, cooperative continuing education program. Participants in the program serve as instructors, planners and committee members. In 1994, Ms. Peterson and University for Seniors initiated an intergenerational program with undergraduate students at the University of Minnesota-Duluth. The program has expanded to include cooperative efforts with over 12 university departments and the medical school. University for Seniors is a member of the Minnesota Humanities Commission’s Learning in Retirement Network, a state-wide association of university and community based senior learning and service organizations.

Robert Ross, M.D., is president and chief executive officer for The California Endowment, a $3.7 billion, private foundation (the largest private health funder in California) established in 1996 to address the health needs of Californians. Prior to his appointment in September 2000, Dr. Ross served as director of the Health and Human Services agency for the County of San Diego. Dr. Ross has an extensive background as a clinician and public health administrator. His service includes: Commissioner, Philadelphia Department of Public Health and medical director for LINK School-Based Clinic Program, Camden, N.J. Dr. Ross is actively involved in community and professional activities at both the local and national level and has received numerous awards and honors including the "Youth Advocacy Humanitarian of the Year" award, 1999 and the "Outstanding Community Service Award" from the Volunteers of America in 1999.

John Rowe, M.D., is president and CEO of Aetna U.S. Healthcare, the nation’s largest healthcare insurer. Prior to joining Aetna, Dr. Rowe served as president and chief executive officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health, one of the nation’s largest health care organizations. Prior to the Mount Sinai NYU Health merger, Dr. Rowe was president of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City. He serves as professor of medicine and geriatrics at the Mount Sinai School of Medicine and was previously a Professor of Medicine at Harvard University. He has authored over 200 scientific publications, mostly in the physiology of the aging process. Dr. Rowe has received numerous honors and awards and was director of the MacArthur foundation research network on successful aging and co-authored with Robert Kahn, Ph.D., Successful Aging (Pantheon, 1998).

Skip Schlenk, manages AT&T’s work and family programs and is director of the AT&T Family Care Development Fund. The Fund is created to support community-based projects that will increase the supply and improve the quality of child and elder care services available to AT&T employees across the country. Between 1990 and 1998, the Fund granted $35 million. Ms. Schlenk is a member of many boards and committees including the executive committee for the National Council on the Aging and the board of champions for the American Business Collaboration for Quality Dependent Care. She is the past chair of the National Association of Private Industry Councils.

Andy Shookoff, J.D., is associate director of the Child and Family Policy Center ("the Center") at the Institute for Public Policy Studies at Vanderbilt University and associate professor of the practice of law at Vanderbilt Law School. Through the Child and Family Policy Clinic, a collaborative project of the Law School and the Center, Judge Shookhoff works with third year law students to identify problems within the foster care system and to develop and implement strategies to address those problems. Judge Shookhoff also heads the Center’s efforts to involve religious organizations in community outreach. Prior to joining the Center, Judge Shookhoff served an eight-year term as Nashville’s Juvenile Court judge. In 1995, President Clinton selected Judge Shookhoff as one of ten presidential appointees to the National Commission on Crime Control and Prevention. He was named "Judge of the Year" in 1996 by the National Court Appointed Advocate Association and his court was designated a "Model Court" by the National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges for its innovation in the handling of neglect and abuse cases.

Jimmy Neil Smith is founder and president of the International Storytelling Center. The Center seeks to build a culture of storytelling in today’s society, educate people about the power of storytelling, and provide opportunities for learning about storytelling and its traditions, practice and creative applications. Creative applications include the use of storytelling in health care, leadership and management, and to strengthen communities. In 1973, Mr. Smith founded the National Storytelling Festival in Jonesborough, Tennessee. The Festival, which is produced annually by the Center, has helped to ignite a revival of appreciation for storytelling throughout the world. Mr. Smith served three terms as mayor of Jonesborough and is a former teacher. He has also written two books on storytelling.

Ralph Smith is the vice president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, a private philanthropy dedicated to help building better futures for disadvantaged children in the United States. The primary mission of the foundation, which Smith joined in 1994, is to foster public policies, human-service reforms and community supports that more effectively meet the needs of today’s vulnerable children and families. Smith was a member of the law faculty of the University of Pennsylvania from 1975 to 1997 and is founding director of the National Center on Fathers and Families and the Philadelphia Children’s Network. He has spent the last decade working with foundations, civic organizations, public agencies and school boards across the country on issues relating to education reform, child and family policy and public sector system change.

Jeanette C. Takamura, Ph.D., was sworn in as assistant secretary for aging in the department of Health and Human Services in December 1997. Prior to her appointment, Dr. Takamura was first deputy of the Hawaii Department of Health and on the faculties of the school of medicine and the school of social work at the University of Hawaii. In her work at the Administration on Aging, Dr. Takamura oversees a nation-wide network of regional, state and area agencies on aging, providing supportive assistance to at-risk older persons in their homes and communities.

Cynthia Telles, Ph.D., is the director of the Spanish-Speaking Psychosocial Clinic of the University of California Los Angeles Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital. She is also on the faculty of the UCLA school of medicine, department of psychiatry. In 1994, Dr. Telles was appointed by the mayor of Los Angeles to serve a four year term on the City of Los Angeles commission on the status of women. The president of the city council recently appointed Dr. Telles to the commission on Children, Youth and Their Families. In 1993, Dr. Telles was asked to join an ad hoc advisory group to the presidential task force on health care reform. Later that year, she was appointed to the national sdvisory council for the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration by the United States secretary of Health and Human Services, Donna Shalala. She has authored many publications and presentations on mental health issues regarding the Latino population. Dr. Telles has also received numerous honors and awards including the YWCA Silver Achievement Award, the Women of Achievement Award, and the American Psychological Association’s First Annual Award for mental health public service.

James Vandiver is community relations director for LifeTrust America, a company that provides residential and community based services to seniors. He works with local government, healthcare, faith and business organizations as the company’s liaison to the 44 communities in which it has assisted living centers. He is also responsible for community education outreach on clinical ethics and end of life issues as they relate to families. He has partnered with hospitals and universities to do professional education in clinical ethics for care givers. Since 1998, Mr. Vandiver has been a member of the long term care advisory council for the state of Tennessee, a position to which he was appointed by the speaker of the State House of Representatives. The Council currently seeks to bring a full range of home and community based services to both the medicaid and non-medicaid eligible populations in addition to nursing home care. Mr. Vandiver was previously a local church minister for 35 years.

Janet Van Zandt is the former executive director of Boston Aging Concerns – Young and Old United. During the eight years that she was director, Ms. Van Zandt led the effort to open the first housing in the country for grandparents who are raising their grandchildren full time without parents present. The result of her efforts, GrandFamilies House, opened in October, 1988. Ms. Van Zandt currently assists organizations that wish to create housing based on the GrandFamilies model. Organizations from more than 30 states have requested information on replicating the model. Ms. Van Zandt previously headed a statewide effort to include the right to housing in the state constitution. She also helped create the first transitional housing for homeless women and children in Massachusetts. She has served on the boards of many organizations including the Boston Community Loan Fund, the Massachusetts Coalition for the Homeless and the Department of Social Services.

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