Q: How long have you been a GSA member?
A: Since 2016.
Q: How specifically has membership in GSA benefitted you?
A: There are many benefits of GSA. I started attending when I was a doctoral student. The EPSO programming and networking were particularly helpful. I connected with fellow students and set up writing/accountability groups. It was wonderful to connect with more senior faculty members to get career advice and guidance. I also participated in the GSA Diversity Mentoring & Career Development Technical Assistance Workshop, which I highly recommend for students and early-career scholars. I have made many life-long friends and colleagues at GSA and built relationships that have turned into collaborations.
Q: How did you get interested in the field of aging?
A: I come from a large family. I have a total of 51 first cousins on both sides, and only 2 cousins are younger than me. As a result, I spent my early years surrounded by older aunts, uncles, and other family members, and I enjoyed listening to them reminisce about their lives and the things they experienced. Growing up around older adults, I’ve always been passionate about hearing their stories and supporting them as they age. Even as a young person, I saw how our healthcare system was not prepared to care for older adults and how difficult it was for them to meet their basic needs. I became committed to ensuring older adults don’t fall through the cracks of our healthcare system and that they receive the resources necessary for happy and healthy aging.
Q: What projects are you working on in your current position?
A: My area of expertise is in shared decision-making. I develop educational materials, known as patient decision aids, which explain various diseases and treatments. These decision aids are patient-centered and provide information to help people make fully informed medical decisions. My work aims to empower patients facing complex medical decisions to make informed choices and to facilitate conversations between clinicians and patients. My goal is for people to make decisions based on their values and what matters most to them. Specifically, I specialize in end-of-life decision-making in underserved communities. I also work on developing patient decision aids for preventive cancer screenings and for people living with dementia. All of this focuses on older adults and underrepresented communities, who are the most vulnerable.
Q: What do you love most about your line of work?
A: That’s easy—being out in the community and talking to older adults. They all have such wonderful and unique stories, and I love listening to and learning from them. Most people just want to be seen, heard, valued, and respected. It is a great honor when an older adult shares their story with me. This helps my work because it gives me a perspective on what decisions are important to the communities I work in and how to develop decision aids that are inclusive and approachable. I include community member input and feedback in all the decision aids I develop.
Q: What was the best piece of advice you got early on in your career you’d like to pass on to emerging gerontologists?
A: Pick two or three big topical areas you are interested in and don’t take on projects outside of those areas. That advice helped me stay focused on my career and goals and not get distracted by the temptation to say yes to everything. For me, those areas are gerontology, health equity, and shared decision-making. Another important piece of advice was to find an academic home and get involved. GSA is a wonderful academic home with many opportunities for early-career scholars.