Welcome to Our New GSA VPs, Lisa McGuire and Charlie Baase!

The leadership team of the GSA staff is growing. In the last two weeks, we’ve welcomed two accomplished executives: Lisa McGuire, PhD, FGSA, as vice president of strategic alliances and practice innovation and Charlie Baase as vice president of marketing, communications, and business development.

GSA members have likely heard Lisa’s name before, as she’s been a long-time member — and fellow! — who most recently completed a 20-year career at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. As a senior strategic health scientist, she did amazing work to strengthen the public health infrastructure for Alzheimer’s disease. She’s going to fit right in guiding GSA’s collaborative relationships with our many corporate partners and implementing programs to improve the care of older adults.

Charlie has a diverse background that includes work at professional membership organizations, including the American Osteopathic Association. Most recently, he was a group senior vice president at GCI Health, and was a senior vice president at the global communications and public relations firm Edelman. In addition to leading GSA’s new unit focusing on marketing, communications, social media, and public relations activities, he will explore new business development opportunities and collaborations in sectors where the Society has opportunities for growth.

Lisa and Charlie step in as our current vice president of strategic alliances and integrated communications, Karen Tracy, plans to retire at the end of this year. I’ve worked alongside Karen for decades, and she’s been an incredibly valued colleague at GSA for the past 10 years. I also gratefully acknowledge the ongoing support of other current members of our leadership team: Patricia D’Antonio as vice president of policy and professional affairs, Jim Evans as chief operating officer and chief financial officer, and Judie Lieu as vice president of publishing and professional resources.

Our staff is now operating at full capacity as we implement the Society’s mission of Fostering Excellence, Innovation, and Collaboration to Advance Aging Research, Education, Practice, and Policy, as stated in its newly approved Strategic Plan. (We’ll be sharing more about the plan in Gerontology News soon.)

I hope you’ll extended a warm welcome to Lisa and Charlie onsite at the upcoming Annual Scientific Meeting in Seattle. Within the first few weeks of starting at GSA, they’ll get to see what makes GSA a wonderful organization to work for. That is, you, the membership!