Cohen-Mansfield Earns GSA’s 2024 Robert W. Kleemeier Award
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) — the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging — has chosen Jiska Cohen-Mansfield, PhD, FGSA, of Tel Aviv University as the 2024 recipient of the Robert W. Kleemeier Award.
This distinguished honor is given annually to a GSA member in recognition for outstanding research in the field of gerontology. It was established in 1965 in memory of Robert W. Kleemeier, PhD, a former president of the Society whose contributions to the quality of life through research in aging were exemplary.
The award presentation will take place at GSA’s 2024 Annual Scientific Meeting, which will be held from November 13 to 16 in Seattle, Washington. This conference is organized to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, educators, and practitioners who specialize in the study of the aging process.
At Tel Aviv University, Cohen-Mansfield is a professor in the Department of Health Promotion, which she founded in 2005 within the School of Public Health, and co-director of the Minerva Center for Interdisciplinary Studies of the End of Life, which she established in 2011.
She previously served as a professor at Georgetown University Medical School and The George Washington University Medical School. In 1984, she founded the Research Institute on Aging at the Hebrew Home of Greater Washington, the largest nursing home in Maryland.
Cohen-Mansfield has authored over 350 peer-reviewed papers, 45 book chapters and 17 psychological assessments along with editing 10 books and monographs. Her research has been cited more than 41,000 times.
The impact of her work is at the heart of the person-centered care movement, which is integral to the philosophy of caring for individuals in long-term care. She introduced the Cohen-Mansfield Agitation Inventory and Agitation Mapping Instrument. This work was transformational within long term care. Her model divided behaviors into aggressive/nonaggressive and verbal/vocal—physical. She developed tools to measure agitation through informants, observation, and technology. In total she created 17 different assessment instruments linked to this and other critical issues in gerontology.
Cohen-Mansfield is one of the leading researchers in non-pharmacological interventions. She has been a major contributor to the restraint reduction and elimination programs in long-term care and the de-emphasis on using medications to reduce agitated behaviors. She developed interventions for loneliness and to enhance quality of life at the end of life. A review of her work in the community indicated that her research had major impacts on areas such as physical activity, loneliness, end of life care, pain, and non-pharmacological interventions.
Cohen-Mansfield is a GSA fellow, which represents the highest category of membership within the Society, as well as a fellow of the American Psychological Association. She has received many additional honors, including the Busse Research Award, the Barry Reisberg Award for Alzheimer's Research, the Pfizer Quality Improvement Award, the Psychologists in Long-Term Care Outstanding Contribution Award, the Powell Lawton Distinguished Contribution Award in Applied Gerontology, the International Psychogeriatric Association 2015 Award for Distinguished Service to the Field of Psychogeriatrics.
She studied psychology and statistics at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and earned her master's degree in statistics from Hebrew University as well as another master's degree and a PhD degree in clinical psychology from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. Later she earned an MBA from The George Washington University.
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The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society — and its 5,500+ members — is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA’s structure includes a nonpartisan public policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and GSA is also home to the National Center to Reframe Aging and the National Coordinating Center for the Resource Centers for Minority Aging Research.