Q: How long have you been a GSA member?
A: I joined as a student in 2000.
Q: How specifically has membership in GSA benefitted you?
A: GSA is my professional home. I have joined other societies but GSA conferences are my primary place to network, learn about what is new in research, and advance my scholarship.
Q: How did you get interested in the field of aging?
A: In high school my grandmother moved into an Assisted Living facility in my town and I found out they were hiring a position they called “Associate”, where I could work as a server, kitchen staff, cleaner, or receptionist. It seemed like a way to be closer to my grandmother and get a lot of experience doing different kinds of jobs. I instantly realized how much I loved working with the residents with dementia. I pursued Psychology and pre-med in college, but when I took Adult Development and Aging my senior year, I felt like everything clicked. By pursuing a graduate degree in gerontology, I could immerse myself in all the things I loved – studying and finding solutions to improve health, wellbeing, and social engagement, and this could be with older adults, those with dementia, and could include their family caregivers.
Q: What projects are you working on in your current position?
A: For the past few years I have been studying the benefits of Acceptance and Commitment Therapy for family caregivers of people with dementia. We have adapted in-person exercises typically delivered with a therapist to an online, self-guided online format. Our Stage I and Stage II studies support that a myriad of outcomes improve and are sustained over time. We are working towards implementation and dissemination. I am also Directing the new state-funded Alzheimer’s Disease and Dementia Research Center which involves promoting research opportunities across the state and providing a new caregiver clinic.
Q: What do you love most about your line of work?
A: I love that research on supporting dementia caregivers can be applied to directly help people. The research doesn’t feel abstract or that we are teasing apart the minutia. It has immediate impact on people in a very difficult role.
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: I would encourage emerging gerontologists to immediately begin building relationships with the agencies or institutions providing care or aging services, or those that are involved with policy or advocacy of older adults in their state. These relationships can help new gerontologists identify unmet community needs to guide their next steps in research, help with recruitment of participants to research studies, and importantly it helps to understand the bigger picture of supporting health and well-being for older adults.