Journalists in Aging Fellows Program Alumni
2024 Cohort
Donna Alvarado (Bay City News Foundation)
Project: “Hidden Impact of Remote Working on Aging Workers.”
Estefania Arellano-Bermudez (El Central Hispanic News)
Project: Limited retirement opportunities in the immigrant community
Jeanette Beebe (The Ohio Newsroom)
Project: “Not Eating: Malnutrition Plagues Older Adults in Northeast Ohio”
Ellen E. Eldridge (Georgia Public Broadcasting)
Project:“When Language Barriers Lead to Potentially Fatal Neglect.”
Alexa Caitlyn Mikhail (Fortune)
Project: “The Stories from the New Frontier,” on those 65 and older who are charting a new path for themselves in a newfound decade of life
Ashley Milne-Tyte (NPR)
Project: “How Men Age, and How They Can Do It Better”
Taayoo Murray (Amsterdam News)
Project: How the social determinants of health converge over time to impact the quality of life of older Black Americans, and how policy can change this
Anjana Nagarajan-Butaney (India Currents)
Project: “Barriers to Menopause Treatment — Access, Insurance, and Taboos”
Leah R. Romero (Source New Mexico)
Project: “Aging and New Mexico’s Long-Term Care Workforce”
Aiola Virella (Metro Puerto Rico)
Project: “How to Take Care of Our Loved Ones When Memory Fades”
Grace Vitaglione (North Carolina Health News)
Project: Aging in Southeastern North Carolina
Margit B. Weisgal (The Baltimore Sun)
Project: “Longevity Ready Maryland and Similar Programs”
Moira Welsh (Toronto Star)
Project: “Suicide and the Isolation of Older Men”
Monica Williams (Michigan Solutions Journalism Collaborative/Urban Aging News/Detroit News)
Project: “Black Americans Aging Alone: The Rewards and Risks”
2023 Cohort
Kate Ashford (NerdWallet)
Project: A series on “The Implications of Long COVID in Older Adults.”
Deborah Bailey (Afro American Newspapers)
Project: A series on the impact of diabetes on Black Americans in the post-pandemic era, “Black Maturity, Diabetes and American Policy — The Perilous Intersection.”
Katie Scarlett Brandt (Chicago Health Magazine/Caregiving Magazine)
Project: A series on aging and homelessness.
Clara Germani (Christian Science Monitor)
Project: “What really is ‘old,’ anyway?”: How an aging America is going to change American culture.
Cleo Krejci (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
Project: Holes in care and worker training at Wisconsin Community Based Residential Facilities (assisted living).
Meera Kymal (India Currents)
Project: “Language Barriers Limit Health Care Access for South Asian Seniors.”
Rose Lundy (The Maine Monitor)
Project: The impact of limited long-term care at a rural community facility.
Christina Nooney (KALW Public Radio)
Project: “Why Elders 85+ Lead California Deaths from Malnutrition.”
Marga Parés Arroyo (El Nuevo Día)
Project: Series on “Abandonment of Elders in Hospitals” in Puerto Rico.
Anjana Rajbhandary (NepYork)
Project: “The Vital Role of Personal Care,” on challenges for older Nepali immigrants in the U.S.
Clavel Rangel (El Tiempo Latino)
Project: A series on “Navigating Automation: The Future of Latino Adult Workers in a Digital Age.”
Kristen Senz (Today’s Caregiver Magazine)
Project: “Health Equity Through Innovation: The Promise of Longevity-Focused Tech.”
Cassandra Spratling (Detroit Free Press)
Project: A two-part series on “The Heart-Health of Older African Americans: Their Vulnerability and What Research Can Tell Us.”
John F. Wasik (Forbes Magazine)
Project: A series on “Green Golden Years: The Environmental Impact of Retirement.”
Macy Yang (Hmong Daily News)
Project: “Hmong Elders Face Invisibility, Depression, and Social Isolation.”
2022 Cohort
Patricia Anstett (Urban Aging News, part of Michigan Solutions Journalism Network)
Project: “The Financial Burden of Breast Cancer on Aging Women,” on the financial toxicity of breast cancer with low Medicare and little private coverage.
Michelle Baruchman (The Seattle Times)
Project: The mental-health and other impacts on LGBTQ+ older adults, and how housing communities can help address their needs.
Claire Cleveland (Collective Colorado)
Project: The search for non-discriminatory assisted living that won’t force LGBTQ+ older adults back “into the closet.”
Ann Hedreen (3rd Act Magazine)
Project: How reflection and writing, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic, helped older adults define meaning in their lives.
Jessie Hellmann (CQ Roll Call)
Project: Older Americans and the risk for substance abuse in the opioid epidemic.
Abriana Herron (Indianapolis Recorder)
Project: Series on the lives and struggles of Black veterans in Indianapolis, with multimedia elements accessible to the Black deaf community.
Ambika Kandasamy (San Francisco Public Press)
Project: The health risks of climate change, such as heat waves, for older adults, with a focus on model solutions developed in San Francisco’s Chinatown and other U.S. cities.
Nora Malacuso (PBS Next Avenue)
Project: Aging and marginalized immigrant communities, a series focusing on Philadelphia.
Jyoti S. Madhusoodanan (Nature Magazine)
Project: The continued exclusion of older people from clinical trials for treatments often intended for them.
Barbara Mantel (CQ Researcher)
Project: A comprehensive examination of the growing mental health toll of health issues on older people, exacerbated by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Mey Lyn Mitteen (Excélsior, Southern California News Group)
Project: A focus on Latino older adults and technology during the COVID-19 era.
Alex Rosenberg (NerdWallet)
Project: Evaluating “alternatives” to Medicare, such as Mark Cuban’s Cost Plus Drugs, direct primary care options, and others, to advise on consumers how to distinguish scams from effective programs.
Anita Snow (Associated Press)
Project: Climate change and older adults’ increasing vulnerability to temperature extremes, focusing on public accountability and solutions.
Annmarie Timmins (New Hampshire Bulletin)
Project: State legislative controversies over long-term care policies in wake of COVID-19.
Mark Woolsey (Atlanta Senior Life)
Project: Mental Health issues for older adults with long-haul COVID-19.
Yiyan Zheng (World Journal, New York Bureau)
Project: Bilingual Chinese-English investigation of how New York Chinatown families hit by COVID-19 have rebuilt and recovered, as well as their continuing difficulties.
2021 Cohort
Bobbi I. Booker (Your Philly Black News)
Project: Three-part multimedia series on Philadelphia’s senior community centers located in low income Black neighborhoods throughout the city.
Ruben Castaneda (U.S. News & World Report)
Project: In-depth story to explain both why Latinos are dying at greater rates of COVID-19, and why their rate of mortality is lower for other causes.
Chelsea Cirruzzo (Axios)
Project: Investigative story on homeless seniors in Washington, DC, including a national perspective.
Rukiya Colvin (Planet Detroit)
Project: Air pollution, heatwaves, flooding — the triple threat that’s killing Detroit’s older adults.
Paige Cornwell (The Seattle Times)
Project: Long-form feature and photo package on rural aging in the state of Washington.
Julie Fanselow (3rd Act Magazine)
Project: How creative professionals use the arts to help people process their experiences amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Annakai Hayakawa Geshlider (Rafu Shimpo)
Project: Issues for incarcerated older people, with a focus on Asians in the U.S., intensified by the COVID pandemic.
B. Denise Hawkins (Trice Edney News)
Project: Why the Maryland Baptist Aged Home, and a handful of others like it, may represent a needed break with tradition — and what a new model for nursing home care should be, especially for Black older adults.
Tony Hicks (Bay City News)
Project: Two stories on the dynamics of older adult life in Contra Costa County (one of California’s fastest aging), with one on the political impact and the second on the changing workforce.
LaShawn Hudson (WABE Public Radio’s “Closer Look with Rose Scott”)
Project: Multi-part series on the COVID-19-related public health tragedy at Atlanta’s Arbor Terrace at Cascade retirement community.
Elissa S. Lee (Southern California News Group)
Project: What does caregiving look like in marginalized communities (particularly immigrant communities, communities of color, LGBTQ+, and disabled), and how has COVID-19 impacted care?
Ronnie Lovler (Gainesville Sun)
Project: An examination of Florida’s The Villages retirement community, including how it developed, why that location was chosen, and how and why it has grown — and the contrast of its older white homogeneity with the racial, ethnical, and generational mix found in nearby Gainesville.
Lavina Melwani (Khabar Magazine)
Project: “Final Destination: Last Stop on the Indian Immigrant Journey in America,” in-depth piece on the retirement options for the 4.8 million-strong Indian-American population in the U.S.
Annie Nova (CNBC)
Project: “The Myth of Retirement in America,” a three-part series on how the pandemic disrupted workers’ attempts to build a nest egg; on how many people have been forced to retire before they were ready; and how unprepared for retirement so many Americans already were, and what it’s like getting by on just Social Security.
Michael Sainato (The Guardian)
Project: A focus on the workplace issues older populations face in the U.S., including the aging discrimination they face in job hiring, how they’re treated in the workplace, and the increasing need to work past their intended retirement age.
Carly Stern (The Washington Post)
Project: “What Women of Color Need to Know About Dementia”: how miseducation and delayed care contribute to poor outcomes for women of color with dementia.
Ian Torres Santa Ana (Telemundo Oklahoma)
Project: A three-part series on how COVID-19 affected Hispanic seniors, including a look at the psychology of isolation, how a recreation center brings together Hispanic older adults around Latino culture, and how service gaps left by the pandemic will be closed.
2020 Cohort
Lola Butcher (Undark Magazine)
Project: A long-form article on why U.S. life expectancy and many other measures of health status are worse than that of other high-income nations.
Xuanlu “Melody” Cao (SinoVision Inc, New York, New York)
Project: An in-depth video series, “Mental Health of Asian American Seniors in Pandemic.”
Diane Eastabrook (PBS Next Avenue)
Project: A two-part article series on emerging issues in the aging of the workforce, “Older Workers in Corporate America.”
John Ferrannini (Bay Area Reporter, San Francisco, California)
Project: Series on LGBTQ elder housing issues, including the pandemic’s impact, senior isolation, a national overview and the status of low-income older adults.
Carl L. Johnson (PolyByDesign and Faika Broadcast/KALI-FM, Court Fair Oaks, California)
Project: Series on older Pacific Islanders’ standard of living and healthcare, including the impact of the pandemic.
Jenny Manrique (Palabra, news site of the National Hispanic Journalists Association)
Project: The pandemic’s effects on Latino elders and direct-care staff in Texas, California, and the rest of the U.S.
Margaret “Peggy” Sands Orchowski, PhD (The Georgetowner, Washington DC)
Project: A series of five monthly columns, “The Changing Cityscape of Silver Cities,” on aging in one of the area’s more prominent but also diverse communities.
Jatika H. Patterson (The Crisis, magazine of the NAACP)
Project: An article examining solutions to poor care and abuses in many Medicaid-only facilities serving Black and other low-income elders.
Nargis Rahman (Tostada Magazine, Detroit, Michigan)
Project: A three-part series on Detroit Bangladeshi older adults, especially women, and how local leaders combat misinformation in immigrant communities amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Rachel Roubein (Politico)
Project: An investigative article on what COVID-19 reveals about lingering policy failures on long-term care in the U.S.
Lara Salahi (Gannett Media’s New England North Unit)
Project: A three-part series, “Reimaging Elder Care in the Age of Coronavirus.”
Maria Sestito (The Desert Sun, Palm Springs, California)
Project: A five-part series on how COVID-19 exposes older adult isolation and related issues of long-term care as a persistent problem.
Casey Smith (The Associated Press/Report for America)
Project: A six-part series on conflicts of interests in the assisted-living industry.
Eduardo Stanley (Community Alliance/”Nuestro Foro,” KFCF 88.1 FM, Fresno, California)
Project: A two-part series with photographs, “Immigrant Latino Farmworkers Aging.”
Julia Yarbough (“Action News Now,” KHSL/KNVN, Chico, California)
Project: A three-part series on senior caregiving in California — Gov. Gavin Newsom’s Master Plan for Aging after one year; senior-care facility operations during the pandemic; and the effects of capital investment firms on care in assisted living and skilled nursing facilities.
2019 Cohort
Hassan Abbas (Arab American News)
Project: Three-part series on intergenerational family relations in the Arab American community of Detroit and Dearborn, Michigan, focusing especially on religious or ethnic affiliations of Arab American subgroups and socio-economic conditions affecting them.
Mayra Acevedo (WIPR-TV Puerto Rico)
Project: Four-part, Spanish language series (captioned in English), plus a half-hour special, on how nonprofits are helping impoverished older Puerto Ricans, many ineligible for benefits because they own homes —including those damaged by 2017’s Hurricanes Irma and Maria.
Tina Antolini (KQED Public Radio’s “California Report”)
Project: As part of a documentary series on ageism, an examination of how a group of nuns challenge traditional notions of “successful aging” while living long, meaningful lives interdependently.
Agustin Duran (La Opinión, Southern California)
Project: Three-part series on a retirement challenges for Latinos in Southern California, such as undocumented status, lack of health insurance, being eligible for only small Social Security benefits, and homelessness.
Cecilia Hernandez-Cromwell (Telemundo Noticiero Oklahoma)
Project: Three-part series on the physical and emotional effects of undocumented immigrants’ journey to the U.S., far from home and family; the impact of stress and injuries over years of heavy labor without health insurance; and the toll on caregivers.
Kate Ferguson (Real Health Magazine)
Project: “Aging in Place: Today’s Prison Population,” a two-part series in print and online on health and mental health issues for older prisoners reentering communities and their families, with a focus on model approaches by progressive law-enforcement agencies.
Katherine Ellen Foley (Quartz)
Project: How researchers can better meet the needs minority older adults, a group historically excluded from clinical dementia research despite their higher-than-average rates of dementia, and the fact that Alzheimer’s disease may manifest differently in people of color.
Judith L. Kanne, RN (Atlanta Senior Life)
Project: Two-part series on combatting elder abuse in Georgia through prevention.
Jon Kelvey (The Carroll County Times, Maryland)
Project: An investigation of how the true cost of living, both for prime-age wage earners and those in long-term care, calls for a more realistic living wage threshold — one that reflects what people need to be earning to ensure independence in old age in today’s reality of wage stagnation and rising costs of basic necessities.
Joanne Laucius (Ottawa Citizen, Ontario, Canada)
Project: Story package with video interviews on increasing loneliness among older adults in Canada and its potential health risks.
Cynthia McCormick (Cape Cod Times, Massachusetts)
Project: Two-part print series package with reporting, sidebars, and profiles, plus a public radio podcast on the disproportionate numbers of older homeless people on Cape Cod and how officials are addressing what is becoming a statewide crisis of housing insecurity for older adults.
Jaya Padmanabhan (India Currents)
Project: “Loneliness and its Linkage to Food for Aging Indian American Immigrants,” underscoring the need for health care services to account for how access to traditional foods affects cultural beliefs and behaviors of older people, particularly in Indian cultures.
Joelle Renstrom (Slate)
Project: A three-part series on the science, practical considerations, and social/ethical implications of radical life extension discoveries, such as emerging “rejuvenation technologies” and how they might promote widening social and cultural rifts.
Luanne Rife (The Roanoke Times, Virginia)
Project: An investigation of whether older Virginians with mental illness or dementia who lack family and funds are receiving appropriate services or are being housed in psychiatric hospitals, despite legal requirements that they be placed in the least-restrictive settings.
2018 Cohort
Rodney A. Brooks (USA Today)
Project: “Aging While Black” — the health, retirement prospects and finances of aging African Americans.
Kevyn Burger (Star Tribune)
Project: The devastating financial impact of frontotemporal degeneration, a form of dementia.
Laura Castañeda, EdD (NBC Latino)
Project: The latest research about aging Latinos in the U.S., as well as some of the model programs and interventions that are helping this population.
Cassie M. Chew (The Chicago Reporter)
Project: Older ex-offenders facing barriers to community reintegration.
Richard Eisenberg (Next Avenue)
Project: What Americans can learn from residents of the world’s high-longevity “Blue Zones” to ensure their money lasts throughout their increasing lifespans.
Elizabeth Fite (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
Project: Suicides among older Tennessee residents, including an overview, personal stories, and potential solutions.
Lisa V. Gillespie (WFPL News Louisville)
Project: Series on legal medical malpractice; end-of-life care disparities for Medicaid long-term care patients; the rural eldercare gap; older minority women working longer; and aging with hunger.
Mariel Toni Jimenez (Positively Filipino)
Project: Changes in Filipino family relationships following the death of a loved one.
Chunxiang Jin (World Journal)
Project: Chinese-language coverage of the post-military life of Chinese American veterans.
Xavier Juan Jones (Telegram Newspaper)
Project: The effects of childhood stress on mental illness in African Americans aged 65 and older in the Detroit area.
Mary Kane (Kiplinger’s Retirement Report)
Project: Changes in eldercare reflecting medical and scientific advances for cognitive stimulation, and the strengths that remain even at advanced ages.
Shira Laucharoen (Sampan)
Project: The immigration stories of older Asians, and Asian models for independent living in Boston’s Chinatown.
Rhonda J. Miller (WKU Public Radio)
Project: Older Kentucky residents facing challenges of language, hunger and isolation.
P. Christine Nguyen, MD (KALW Public Radio)
Project: Vietnamese older adults with dementia in Northern California, and the aspects of their culture that make it harder for them and their caretakers to cope.
Brad Pomerance (Jewish Life Television)
Project: Mental health in the Jewish community’s older population and dispelling the stereotype of the “neurotic Jew.”
Samantha Díaz Roberts (MundoHispánico)
Project: New immigration policies and how they are affecting older generations in the Atlanta area.
Viji Sundaram (India West)
Project: How South Asian cultural beliefs, as well as ignorance, keep many older Indian Americans from writing advance health care directives to state their end-of-life wishes.
David K. Wahlberg (Wisconsin State Journal)
Project: Why Wisconsin leads the nation in the rate of deadly falls and what the state is doing to address it.
Cheryl Platzman Weinstock (The New York Times)
Project: Under-recognized factors in older adult suicides.
Peter White (Tennessee Tribune)
Project: Challenges faced by African Americans aging in the South, including social isolation as a result of gentrification
2017 Cohort
Arthur Allen (Politico)
Project: Reducing unnecessary and inappropriate prescriptions and procedures for older patients.
David T. Baker (The Louisiana Weekly)
Project: The rising cost of senior living.
Beth Baker (Next Avenue)
Project: Intergenerational model programs engaging children and seniors.
Jeneé Darden (KQED-FM)
Project: Culturally-competent mental health treatment for older African Americans.
Dawn Davis (Caribbean Today)
Project: How traditional pressures impact Caribbean families to provide elder care at home despite economic stress, and later compel them to spend on elaborate funerals.
Jeanne Erdmann (The Washington Post)
Project: Medical, geographic, and financial disparities to hospice access.
Jacqueline Garcia (La Opinión)
Project: Issues for aging undocumented jornaleros (day-labor workers).
Kelli B. Grant (CNBC)
Project: The intersections between longevity and financial planning.
Gretchen Grosky (The Union Leader)
Project: Isolation of rural seniors in a state that promoted retirement there, but offers limited senior services.
Susan Jaffe (Kaiser Health News)
Project: How Medicare anti-fraud rules create problems for patients and their families.
Julia Kassem (The Detroit Journalism Cooperative)
Project: Poor transportation issues resulting in isolation of Arab American elders.
Debra Krol (Indian Country Today Media Network)
Project: Eldercare challenges for tribes and families.
Zhihong “Cecilia” Li (Sing Tao Daily)
Project: Housing challenges for Chinese older adults, especially immigrants.
JoAnn Mar (KALW-FM)
Project: Insights from physicians and patients on the challenges of providing universal comfort care at the end of life.
D. Kevin McNeir (The Washington Informer)
Project: Aging baby boomers working 9 to 5, many after 65.
Kent Paterson (NMPolitics.net)
Project: Growing relocation/retirement of citizens of the U.S. and Canada to Mexico.
Stephanie Sanchez (KAWC-FM)
Project: Aging farm workers in Yuma County.
Tibisay Zea (El Planeta Media)
Project: Undocumented Latino elders in New England.
2016 Cohort
Francisco Castro (La Opinión)
Project: Varied series on the daily struggles of food and rent for older Latinos, elder abuse among Latinos in home care facilities, and “old love.”
Lois M. Collins (Deseret News, Salt Lake City)
Project: Redefining “community” in old age.
Alice Daniel (KQED Public Radio’s “California Report,” San Francisco)
Project: Mental illness in older Hmong and Lao refugees.
Merdis “Penny” Dickerson (Florida Courier/Daytona Times)
Project: Hunger among older African Americans.
Neil Gonzales (Philippine News)
Project: Barriers to and opportunities for healthy aging, particularly within the Filipino and Asian American community.
Leoneda Inge (North Carolina Public Radio - WUNC)
Project: The “reverse migration” of black retirees to North Carolina.
Erica Manfred (SeniorPlanet.org)
Project: Accessible hearing-loss technology.
Deborah Martinez (KSFR-FM, Santa Fe, New Mexico)
Project: Varied series on navigating Social Security and Medicare, the challenges and opportunities facing New Mexico’s retirees, and recent lawsuits brought against two Santa Fe elder care facilities.
Sister Charlene Muhammad (Los Angeles Sentinel/L.A. Watts Times Weekender)
Project: Intersection of homelessness, dementia, and substance abuse.
Elizabeth Payne (Ottawa Citizen)
Project: A series of articles related to falls, including prevention, causes, costs, and consequences.
Katy Read (Star Tribune, Minneapolis)
Project: Individual and community initiatives to address the dangers of isolation and loneliness.
Randy Rieland (Smithsonian)
Project: Use of artificial intelligence to combat social isolation.
Michael O. Schroeder (U.S. News & World Report)
Project: Financial exploitation of older adults.
Afi-Odelia E. Scruggs (Alldigitocracy.org)
Project: Ageism in the media and its coverage of older adults from minority communities.
Chandra Thomas Whitfield (NBCBLK/NBCNews.com)
Project: Challenges faced by LGBT older adults of color.
Ke “April” Xu (Sing Tao Daily)
Project: Scams haunting Chinese older adults in the U.S.
2015 Cohort
David Bacon (Capital & Main)
Project: Aging immigrant indigenous farm workers in California.
Marcela Paulina Cartagena (La Raza Newspaper)
Project: Chicago’s Spanish-speaking Latino elders being abandoned, abused and depressed, whether at home or in nursing homes.
Lotus Chau (Sing Tao Daily)
Project: A comprehensive picture of Alzheimer disease among Asian Americans who suffer from dementia in New York City.
Kar F. “Geoff” Chin (Media Central, Inc./America Commercial News)
Project: An examination of the Tzu Chi Foundation’s work in multiethnic areas of Los Angeles County aimed at integrating religion and spiritual elements in psychotherapy for elders.
Julian Do (Al Enteshar)
Project: The status of Arab elders and the role of Arab American community centers in helping them access health care and services.
Lisa Esposito (U.S. News & World Report)
Project: Isolation among older adults who desire to live independently, including gaps in health care and social connections for the 40 percent of U.S. seniors who live alone.
Anna Gorman (Kaiser Health News)
Project: How hospitals treat frail elders, with emphasis on medication management for multiple chronic diseases, weakened mobility on discharge due to hospital care practices, and hospital admission of frail seniors.
Carolyn Guniss (Miami Times)
Project: Profiles of largely African American inmates held for 20 or more years, and a study of reentry programs and how they relate to older ex-offenders.
Emily A. Gurnon (Next Avenue)
Project: Abuses in the adult guardianship system.
Diane Lade (South Florida Sun Sentinel)
Project: Senior hunger, focusing on senior food insecurity and nutrition gaps in Florida’s massive retirement communities.
Nell Lake (Boston Globe)
Project: Immigrant women on the front lines of long-term care.
Sarah Macaraeg (Truthout)
Project: How the health of Chicago’s Chinese elders is interconnected with the health of its service providers, especially the Chinese American Service League.
Karen Michel (America Abroad Media)
Project: How members of the Tibetan diaspora continue or modify traditional practices around the dying and the dead in the U.S.
Robert A. “Bob” Rosenblatt (Los Angeles Times)
Project: How Medicare, Medicaid, doctors, insurers and patients will handle the expense and use of drugs curing Hepatitis C.
Diane Joy Schmidt (New Mexico Jewish eLink)
Project: Profiles of older Jews who moved to New Mexico more than 20 years ago and gained a greater sense of connection to their Jewish roots.
Sheri Stuart (Inland Valley News)
Project: The economic downturn’s impact on African American wealth loss.
Tyler Tjomsland (The Spokesman-Review)
Project: The hardships of largely Hispanic migrant workers in Eastern Washington and Idaho.
Linda Valdez (The Arizona Republic)
Project: An investigation of state-of-the-art neurological research regarding physical changes in the brain as a result becoming involved in creative endeavors.
2014 Cohort
Frank Browning (Kaiser Health News and California Magazine)
Project: Emerging approaches to aging in place, such as the Village Model, through the lens of gender; also, an examination of how U.S. demographic shifts, especially in Asian and Latino communities, could affect the lives of older women.
Jennifer L. Boen (Fort Wayne News-Sentinel)
Project: Transforming culturally-relevant elder care, focusing on the growth of refugee and immigrant populations in the American heartland, such as from Burma, West Africa, and Latin America.
Jenny Chen (Asian Fortune Newsmagazine)
Project: Mental health in the Asian American senior population.
Jen Chien (“Crosscurrents,” KALW Public Radio) Project: Social connections for seniors — from ethnic elders dancing for health to cultural barriers for ethnic elders to technology and social media.
Erica Curless (Spokesman-Review)
Project: The lives of elders in small towns and in the countryside, from diehard individualists to those on Indian reservations.
Rachel Dornhelm (KQED Public Radio’s “State of Health” blog and KQED Radio News)
Project: Overmedication in seniors.
Sandra J. Larson (Bay State Banner)
Project: The impact of gentrification on elders’ housing.
Frederick H. Lowe (NorthStar News & Analysis)
Project: Series on older, African American men such as those with little or no Social Security income, often due to low lifetime wages; family caregiving challenges; and prison release at older ages.
Lisa Wong Macabasco (Hyphen Magazine)
Project: The trend in remarriage among Chinese seniors, especially widowers and widows, who have remarried people from Asia, focusing on life and cultural challenges in America today for the aging Chinese population.
Laura McCamy (Oakland Local)
Project: Impact of gentrification on seniors in Oakland’s Chinatown and the African American community on income security for seniors.
Melody Miranda (Mundo Hispánico)
Project: The lack of geriatric physicians (especially Spanish speakers), Hispanic elders’ participation in clinical trials, such as for Alzheimer’s disease, and in community programs.
Greggory W. Morris (BQ Brew)
Project: Ethnographic, street-level stories profiling the quality of life of elders in one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in New York City: East New York, Brooklyn.
Kimberly Palmer (U.S. News & World Report)
Project: How changing health care needs and the medical system put stress on caregiving relationships (and finances) of aging Americans and their children.
Encarnacion Pyle (The Columbus Dispatch)
Project: Elder abuse in personal and public policy terms.
Sarita Sarvate (India Currents Magazine)
Project: How modern pressures are rapidly changing multigenerational family structures, often leaving older adults isolated, facing cultural, language, transportation and economic barriers, even in the affluent Silicon Valley.
Liz Seegert (“HealthStyles,” WBAI, andHealthCetera) Project: Portraits of family caregiving among New York City’s aging ethnic adults.
Elizabeth Simpson (Virginian-Pilot)
Project: Disruptive blending in assisted living facilities of seniors with younger mentally ill people often due to economic downsizing.
Mark Taylor (Philadelphia Inquirer)
John J. Curley Journalism in Aging and Health Fellow sponsored by the John A. Hartford Foundation
Project: How the Affordable Care Act is impacting the way hospitals treat patients with chronic conditions.
Pamela Yip (Dallas Morning News)
Project: The growing challenges of financial elder abuse for cognitively challenged seniors.
2013 Cohort
Jason Alcorn (InvestigateWest)
Fellowship topic: Inequalities in the delivery of health care and information about Alzheimer’ disease in Washington as steps are taken by the state to set future policy directions.
Matthew S. Bajko (Bay Area Reporter)
Fellowship topic: How San Francisco plans to fulfill recommendations of its LGBT Aging Policy Task Force report.
Jose de la Isla (Scripps Howard’s Hispanic Link News Service)
Fellowship topic: Immigrant Latino caregivers (often undocumented) working “off the books.”
Joaqlin Estus (KNBA-FM, Anchorage)
Fellowship topic: The shortage of health care workers, new technologies, and aging in place in Alaska.
Christopher Farrell (Next Avenue)
Fellowship topic: Retirement and work challenges for older immigrants, specifically Chinese elders in San Francisco and Hmong seniors in St. Paul.
Elizabeth Isele (Next Avenue/Forbes)
Fellowship topic: Older middle- and lower-income seniors in the longevity economy.
Colleen Ann Keane (Navajo Times)
Fellowship topic: Profiles of three traditional Navajo artisans preserving heritage for new generations.
Yanick Rice Lamb (MSNBC’s theGrio.com)
John A. Hartford/MetLife Foundation Journalism in Aging & Health Fellow
Fellowship topic: Guides for caregiving and dementia-care for African Americans.
Jennifer Margulis (AARP The Magazine)
Fellowship topic: National shortage of home health aides and the growth of abuses by unchecked aides.
Melinda Miller (The Buffalo News)
Fellowship topic: Gambling addiction among elders and casinos that target them.
Wallace Roberts (NAACP’s The Crisis Magazine)
Fellowship topic: Racism in long-term care and Medicaid for African American seniors.
Gary Rotstein (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
Fellowship topic: The experience and perceptions of death and dying among the older population, how that has changed over time, and what present trends hold for the future
Connie Sexton (Arizona Republic)
Fellowship topic: A look at how seniors from varying cultures confront decisions on palliative care, end of life, and pain management.
Sunita Sohrabji (India-West)
Fellowship topic: The Affordable Care Act’s impact on older Indian immigrants.
Alice Thomas-Tisdale (Jackson Advocate Newspaper)
Fellowship topic: Nursing home care in Mississippi’s inner city and rural facilities.
Dawn M. Williams (Senior News 50 and Better!)
Fellowship topic: Healthy aging through physical activity and good nutrition.
Veronica Zaragovia (KUT Public Radio, Austin)
Fellowship topic: Contrast between health care access in rural and urban Texas, resources for Vietnam veterans suffering from mental distress and addiction; and challenges facing older same-sex couples.
2012 Cohort
Liana Aghajanian (The Atlantic)
Fellowship topic: Medical marijuana and seniors
Eric Anderson, MD (Physician’s Money Digest)
Fellowship topic: How doctors and their staff can prepare for the huge rise in numbers of aging patients
Eileen Beal (Today’s Caregiver Magazine)
Fellowship topic: Financial elder abuse
Carolyn Beeler (WHYY-FM, Philadelphia)
Fellowship topic: HIV among elders
Thandisizwe Chimurenga (Los Angeles Sentinel)
Fellowship topic: Digital divide for black grandparents
Ellen Endo (Rafu Shimpo)
Fellowship topic: Caregiving crisis for Japanese Americans
Cristina Fresquez (The Weekly Issue/El Semanario)
Fellowship topic: Parkinson’s and Latinos
Thomas Goldsmith (The [Raleigh] News & Observer)
Fellowship topic: Isolation of elders, especially those of color and with low income
Alma Yolanda Gonzalez Gomez (HuffPost Voces)
Fellowship topic: Life and health for Latino elders on the Texas-Mexico border
Martina Guzman (WDET-FM, Detroit)
Fellowship topic: Food, faith, and quality care for Latino and Arab elders
Peter McDermott (The Irish Echo)
Fellowship topic: The lives and roles of older working class Irish immigrants, and a Chicago program to train geriatric social workers to bring that knowledge to Ireland
Lygia Navarro (“Radio Ambulante”/“Latino USA”)
Fellowship topic: Challenges for Latino veterans of the Vietnam War
Mohamad Ozeir (Arab American News)
Fellowship topic: Realities of aging for Arab Americans
Matt Perry (California Health Report)
Fellowship topic: Restraints vs. freedom in California nursing homes
Conrado “Sluggo” Rigor (Filipino-American Bulletin/Filipino-American Radio)
Fellowship topic: Struggles and history of Filipino World War II veterans
Barbara Peters Smith (Sarasota Herald-Tribune)
John A. Hartford/MetLife Foundation Journalism in Aging & Health Fellow
Fellowship topic: The home care revolution
Rita Watson (Providence Journal)
Fellowship topic: Nursing home care and cognitive enrichment for residents, including those with Alzheimer’s disease
2011 Cohort
Azadeh Ansari (CNN International)
Fellowship topic: The struggles of elderly Iraqi Arab and Christian refugees in America, mainly in Dearborn, MI
Hanah Cho (Baltimore Sun)
Fellowship topic: The major financial crisis facing older Americans
Karla Gómez Escamilla (Univision Arizona)
Fellowship topic: Immigration challenges for Latino seniors
Kerry Hannon (Forbes, AARP)
Fellowship topic: Work and retirement of the boomer generation.
Kay Harvey (MinnPost)
Fellowship topic: The economic insecurity and health challenges of aging Minnesotans
Jongwon Lee (Korea Daily Atlanta)
Fellowship topic: The strain of American traditional ways felt by elders in extended families, especially with family crowding in the current housing crisis
Pamela MacLean (RedwoodAge.com)
Fellowship topic: Mental health issues awaiting aging boomers and their Generation X children
Nadia Maiwandi
Fellowship topic: The plight of older immigrant women from South Asia, especially Afghanistan.
Araceli Martinez Ortega (La Opiñon)
Fellowship topic: The struggles of Latino elders living solely on Social Security, especially those who are parents of incarcerated children
Andrea Parrott (Twin Cities Daily Planet)
Fellowship topic: Alzheimer’s disease, with an emphasis on African American families
James Ridgeway (Mother Jones)
Fellowship topic: The rising tide of aging prisoners, especially those aging in solitary confinement
Rebecca Rivas (St. Louis American)
Fellowship topic: How social media and the Internet affect learning, isolation, and older-worker issues for older African Americans, such as a new breed of entrepreneurial grandmothers using online media to generate income for their families
Johanes Rosello (Mundo Hispanico)
Fellowship topic: Language and cultural barriers facing growing population of Latino elders in Georgia, where the Hispanic population has doubled in the last decade.
Paula Spencer Scott (Caring.com)
Fellowship topic: Caregiver syndrome, including what caregivers can do to reduce their heightened risks to their physical and mental well-being, work, and relationships
Rochelle Sharpe (New England Center for Investigative Reporting)
Fellowship topic: Declining life expectancy for women in some low-income U.S. regions.
Vanessa White (Viễn Đông Daily News)
Fellowship topic: Ethnic minority depression, with a focus on the Vietnamese-American community
2010 Cohort
Sally Abrahms (AARP Bulletin)
Fellowship topic: Innovative housing options for seniors
Jane Adler (Chicago Tribune)
Fellowship topic: How age-friendly communities can combat loneliness and depression in our aging nation as long-time friends leave the neighborhood or die, adult children move far away, and frailty takes its physical toll on one’s mobility
April Dembosky (San Jose Mercury News)
Fellowship topic: Intergenerational issues in the hospice and palliative care field
Adolfo Flores (El Nuevo Sol, Pasadena Star-News)
Fellowship topic: Grandparents raising or helping to raise their grandchildren
Shaleece Haas (KCAW-Raven Radio, Sitka, AK)
Fellowship topic: How native Alaskan and other seniors are accessing — or failing to access — the services they need.
Christina Hernandez (Philadelphia Inquirer)
Fellowship topic: The hidden epidemic of falls affecting elders in the largely African American and Latino community of Camden, NJ.
Janice N. Lloyd (USA Today)
Fellowship topic: How exercise can enhance the quality of life of aging baby boomers in their homes, in 55-plus communities, and in assisted living facilities.
Katrina Rogers (New Orleans Agenda)
Fellowship topic: The impact of Hurricane Katrina and the BP oil disaster on the lives of elders on the Gulf Coast.
Nayita Wilson (The Louisiana Weekly)
Fellowship topic: The challenges African Americans face in saving for and financing their later years.
Warren Wolfe ([Minneapolis] Star Tribune)
Fellowship topic: The shortage of trained geriatric workers in every health profession — from nursing aides to physicians.
Rong Xiaoqing (Sing Tao Daily)
Fellowship topic: How the dramatic increase of interracial marriages among young Asians in recent years affects the lives of their aging parents.
Mohammed Yussuf (Runta [Truth])
Fellowship topic: Depression and isolation among those ages 60 and older in Somali-American communities.
Aylin Zafar (The Atlantic.com)
Fellowship topic: Social media for seniors, including how this new technology is impacting their quality of life and mental health.
Mei Zhou and Ke Yuan (New Tang Dynasty Television, Epoch Times)
Fellowship topic: Chinese seniors navigating the U.S. healthcare system and communicating with their health care providers.