Aging Research Finds New Audiences Through GSA Journalist Fellows

By CEO James Appleby, BSPharm, MPH

GSA’s Journalists in Aging Fellows Program is about to have a record year! We’re currently accepting applications to welcome 20 reporters in 2018, a new high for us.

GSA has a longstanding commitment to showcasing the extraordinary value of the scholarship conducted by its members, and this program is one of the highly visible ways we accomplish this. The stories produced by the fellows, who hail from many different sectors of the consumer press, reach tens of millions of readers, listeners, and viewers each year.

A key component of the journalists’ involvement in the program is their participation in GSA’s Annual Scientific Meeting, where they are exposed to the brightest minds and latest research in the field. GSA’s goals are to educate the journalists about issues in aging, enabling them to translate findings into compelling stories for both ethnic and general-audience populations; and to disseminate information about new scientific findings, policy debates, innovations, and evidence-based solutions.

Since we welcomed the first class of fellows in 2010, our 136 alumni to date have produced about 600 stories inspired by their interactions with our expert meeting attendees. This immersive learning experience is unique in our field. And we also will be bringing back 16 previous fellows this year to allow them to continue their education in covering the important topics on aging in this country.

The program is funded by five forward thinking organizations — AARP, The Silver Century Foundation, The Retirement Research Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, and The John A. Hartford Foundation — and we are grateful for their ongoing support. They recognize, as we do, that it is vital for us to communicate the value of aging research to the general public. And they recognize that GSA’s meeting is an unparalleled source of information — because of the scholarship that our members contribute to it.