ASI

Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual Scientific Meeting – November 8-12, 2023 in Tampa, FL

GSA is the oldest and largest  interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. GSA’s principal mission – and that of our 5,500 members – is to promote the study of aging and disseminate information to scientists, decision makers, and the general public.

ASI faculty and students will present their work at the 2023 Gerontological Society of America Conference.

List of Presentations

• Catherine Garcia and Lauren Brown
  Intersectional and Biosocial Pathways to Cognitive Function Among Older Hispanic and Latinos
  Wednesday, November 8, 2023
  10:30 AM – 12:00 PM ET
• Maria Brown and Miriam Mutambudzi
  Functional Limitation: Differences by Epigenetic Aging, Ethnicity, and Experience of Discrimination
  Wednesday, November 8, 2023
  12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET
• Andrew London, Scott Landes, and Janet Wilmoth
  Noncombat and Combat Military Service Experiences, Hearing Difficulty, and Difficulty Remembering/Concentrating
  Wednesday, November 8, 2023
  12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET
• Janet Wilmoth (session co-chair)
  Later-Life Experiences of Veterans and Their Caregivers
  Wednesday, November 8, 2023
  12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET
• Miriam Mutambudzi, Maria Brown, and Nai-Wei Chen
  Association of Second Generation Epigenetic Clocks and Discrimination With Trajectories of Chronic Health Conditions
  Wednesday, November 8, 2023
  12:30 PM – 2:00 PM ET
• Haowei Wang (session co-chair)
  Integrating Animal Model, Human Subjects, and Social Systems in Nutrition and Aging Research
  Wednesday, November 8, 2023
  2:30 PM – 4:00 PM ET
• Emily Wiemers, Yulya Truskinovsky, Amanda Leggett, Geoffrey Hoffman, and Vicki Freedman
  Changes in Long-Term Care Arrangements Among Older Adults With ADRD During the First Year of COVID-19 Pandemic
  Wednesday, November 8, 2023
  2:30 PM – 4:00PM ET
• Mary Pagan and Minjung Seo
  Addressing Curriculum Design Challenges: Three Delivery Design Options for Undergraduate Aging and Health Course
  Wednesday, November 8, 2023
  6:00 PM -7:15 PM ET
• Catherine Garcia (Session Chair)
  Multidimensional and Intersectional Approaches to Accessible and Healthy Aging in Diverse Populations
  Friday, November 10, 2023
  8:00 AM – 9:30 AM ET
• Nekehia Tamara Quashie, Catherine Garcia, Cabriella Meltzer, Flavia Andrade, and Amilcar Matos-Moreno
  Neighborhood Socioeconomic Position, Living Arrangements, and Cardiometabolic Disease Among Older Puerto Ricans
  Friday, November 10, 2023
  8:00 AM – 9:30 AM ET
• Jeewon Oh and Han Na Lee
  Obligations in Japan: A Three-year Longitudinal Study of Mid-life Adults
  Friday, November 10, 2023
  2:00 PM – 3:15 PM ET
• Xiaoyu Fu, Woosang Hwang, and Merril Silverstein
  Building Bridges Across the Generations: Research on Diverse Approaches for Intergenerational Connections
  Saturday, November 11, 2023
  8:00 AM – 9:30AM ET
• Xiaoyu Fu, Woosang Hwang, and Merril Silverstein
  Digital Communications as Compensation for Infrequent In-Person Contact With Grandchildren During the Pandemic
  Saturday, November 11, 2023
  8:00 AM – 9:30 AM ET
• Marco Albertini, Noah Lewin Epstein, Merril Silverstein, and Aviad Tur Sinai
  Social Sandwiching and Paid Work in Later Life: Consequences on Mental Health
  Saturday, November 11, 2023
  2:00 PM -3:15 PM ET
• Kevin Heffernan, Janet Wilmoth, and Andrew London
  Estimated Arterial Stiffness, Cognitive Decline, and Dementia Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults
  Saturday, November 11, 2023
  2:00 PM – 3:15 PM ET
• Wencheng Zhang, Merril Silverstein, and Ying Xu
  Intergenerational Solidarity and Filial Piety Perceived by Older Adults in Rural China
  Saturday, November 11, 2023
  2:00 PM – 3:15 PM ET
• Merril Silverstein, Seonhwa Lee, RianSimone Harris, and Wencheng Zhang
  Transmission of Religiosity Between Grandparents and Grandchildren as a Basis for Eldercare Responsibility
  Saturday, November 11, 2023
  3:30 PM – 5:00 PM ET

In recognition of exceptional scholarship and innovative academic and professional activities, Madonna Harrington Meyer and J. Michael Haynie have been reappointed to four-year terms as University Professors, one of the highest honors the University bestows on faculty members. In making the announcement, Gretchen Ritter, vice chancellor, provost and chief academic officer, says the reappointments are a testament to the fact that both Harrington Meyer and Haynie continue to make unique, valuable and profound contributions to the intellectual life of the University through interdisciplinary endeavors and research in critical areas of societal concern. Read more here.

ASI Faculty and Students presented their work at the 2022 Gerontological Society of America Conference, November 2 – 6.

GSA sessions involving Syracuse University faculty and students:

Wednesday November 2, 2022 Link

2:30 – 4:00 PM ET
Location: 232 (CC)
Session Title: Diverse Contexts, Unique Experiences: Impact of Social Isolation on Psychosocial Factors and Cognition
Navigating Life Uncoupled: Changes in Singlehood Satisfaction in Response to Major Life Events
Authors: Jeewon Oh, Syracuse University and William Chopik, Michigan State University

4:30 – 6:00 PM ET
Location: 239 (CC)
Session Title: Giving and Getting Across the Generations: New Insights into Intergenerational Ties
Tracing the Religious Life Course: Inter-and Intragenerational Sources of Later-Life Religiosity in Baby Boomers
Authors: Merril Silverstein, Syracuse University, Joonsik Yoon, Syracuse University, RianSimone Harris, Syracuse University, and Woosang Hwang, Texas Tech University

4:30 – 6:00 PM ET
Location: 239 (CC)
Session Title: Giving and Getting Across the Generations: New Insights into Intergenerational Ties
Financial and Time Help from Adult Children During the COVID-19 Pandemic
Authors: Emily E. Wiemers, Syracuse University, I-Fen Lin, Bowling Green State University, Janecca Chin, Bowling Green State University, and Anna Strauss, Syracuse University

4:30 – 6:00 PM ET
Location: 201 (CC)
Session Title: Leveraging Community-Based Knowledge to Address the Needs of Older Adults from Racial/Ethnic Minority Populations
Chair: Catherine Garcia, Syracuse University

6:00 – 7:00 PM ET
Location: Exhibit Hall DE (CC)
Session Title: Social Determinants of Health
Poster: The Neighborhood Context and All-Cause Mortality Among Older Adults in Puerto Rico
Authors: Catherine Garcia, Syracuse University

Thursday, November 3, 2022
Link

8:00 – 9:30 AM ET
Location: 244 (CC)
Session Title: Engaging Method and Analysis to Discover and Reimagine Possibilities for Individuals Aging with and into Disability
Education and Perceived Future Need for ADL Help
Authors: Julia Finan, Syracuse University

12:00 1:30 PM ET
Location: 243 (CC)
Session Title: Dyadic and Longitudinal Studies of Close Relationships: New Insights into Health and Well-Being Across Adulthood
A Multipronged Approach to Modeling Dyadic Similarity Among Middle-Aged and Older Adults
Authors: Mariah Purol, Michigan State University, Rebekka Weidmann, Michigan State University, Louis Hickman, University of Pennsylvania, Jeewon Oh, Syracuse University, and William Chopik, Michigan State University

2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Location: Exhibit Hall DE (CC)
Session Title: Cognitive Impairment: Social Determinants with Age Groups and Cultural Contexts
Poster: Psychiatric History and Later-Life Cognitive Change: Effect Modification by Sex, Race and Ethnicity
Authors: Maria Brown, Syracuse University and Miriam Mutambudzi, Syracuse University

4:30 – 6:00 PM ET
Location: 125 (CC)
Session Title: Physical and Mental Health Outcomes Among Older Military Veterans
Mortality Risk Among Older Veterans and Nonveterans: The Importance of Combat Status
Chairs: Scott Landes, Syracuse University and Janet Wilmoth, Syracuse University
Authors: Scott Landes, Syracuse University and Jennifer Piazza, California State University

4:30 – 6:00 PM ET
Location: 202 (CC)
Session Title: ADRD Risk
Dementia Trajectories, Medicaid Coverage, and Healthcare Services Use
Authors: Wassim Tarraf, Wayne State University and Marc A. Garcia, Syracuse University

Friday, November 4, 2022 Link

8:00 – 9:30 AM ET
Location: 239 (CC)
Session Title: Assessment and Measurement
Consumers and Providers on the Needs of Long-Term Survivors and People Aging with HIV in New York State
Authors: Maria Brown, Syracuse University, Eugenia Siegler, Weill Cornell Medical College, Marz Albarran, HIVStopsWithMe.org, John Wikier, NY Statewide Peer Network, Angie Partap, Stony Brook Medicine, Courtney Ahmed, NYSDOH AIDS Institute, and Thomas Heslop, Weill Cornell Medical College

12:00 – 1:30 PM ET
Location: 241 (CC)
Session Title: Caregiving and Family Issues
Typologies of Parent-Child Relationships and Associated Health Outcomes: A Cross Cultural Comparison
Authors: Dexia Kong, The Chines University of Hong Kong, Peiyi Lu, Columbia University, and Merril Silverstein, Syracuse University

2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Location: Exhibit Hall DE (CC)
Session Title: Families and Intergenerational Relations
Poster: Intergenerational Digital Solidarity in Aging Families and Its Associations with Relational Outcomes
Authors: Xiaoyu Fu, Syracuse University, Woosang Hwang, Texas Tech, and Merril Silverstein, Syracuse University

2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Location: Exhibit Hall DE (CC)
Session Title: Families and Intergenerational Relations
Poster: Passing on the Silver Spoon: The Role of Early Life Circumstances on Downward Intergenerational Financial Transfers
Authors: Kent Jason Cheng, Syracuse University

Saturday, November 5, 2022 Link

8:00 – 9:30 AM ET
Location: 120-121 (CC)
Session Title: BSS Flash Poster Session 1: Social Determinants of Late Life Health: A Life Course Perspective
The Neighborhood Context and All-Cause Mortality Among Older Adults in Puerto Rico
Authors: Catherine Garcia, Syracuse University, Mary McEniry, University of Wisconsin-Madison, Michael Crowe, University of Alabama-Birmingham

12:00 – 1:30 PM ET
Location: 204 (CC)
Session Title: US Racial and Ethnic Disparities in Dementia Life Expectancy, Risk/Protective Factors, and Caregiving Stressors
Dementia Life Expectancies: New Knowledge and Considerations from the Health and Retirement Study
Authors: Marc A. Garcia, Syracuse University, Wassim Tarraf, Wayne State University, Chi-Tsun Chiu, Institute of European and American Studies, Joseph Saenz, University of Southern California, and Adriana Reyes, Cornell University

2:00 – 3:00 PM ET
Location: Exhibit Hall DE (CC)
Session Title: Social Isolation and Loneliness (BSS)
Loneliness and Depression: Examining the Moderating Effects of Resilience Resources
Authors: Xiaoyan Zhang, Syracuse University and Merril Silverstein, Syracuse University

5:30 – 7:00 PM ET
Location: 125 (CC)
Session Title: Health and Social Services: From Community and Post-Acute Care Interventions to Trauma-Informed Care Survey Research
Home-Delivered Meal Deliveries and Feelings of Safety for Older Americans Act Participants
Authors: Claire Pendergrast, Syracuse University and Heather Menne, RTI International

ASI Faculty and Students presented their work at the 2021 Gerontological Society of America Conference virtually, November 10 – 13.

GSA sessions involving Syracuse University faculty and students:

Professor Emeritus of Public Administration and International Affairs Vernon Greene, who passed away on October 10 at the age of 77, saw the aging process as much more than a person getting old, and his vision helped build Syracuse University’s reputation as a national leader in gerontology, home of the Aging Studies Institute (ASI) and the Center for Aging and Policy Studies (CAPS).

“Vernon is a bedrock for one of the most distinguished interdisciplinary aging institutes in the nation,” says the Maxwell School’s Dean David M. Van Slyke.  Greene was the director of the All-University Gerontology Center (1988-1993), the predecessor to the Aging Studies Institute.  He was a political scientist by training (M.A. and Ph.D. from Indiana University, Bloomington; B.A. from University of Texas, Austin).  He taught at the University of Arizona before coming to Syracuse University as an Associate Professor of Public Administration in 1986. He was promoted to Professor in 1992 and was the longtime chair of the doctoral program in social science at Maxwell.

“It is a testament to his work that we have been able to recruit and retain prolific research faculty and talented students who have an interest in aging as a life course and its direct relationship to public policy,” says Van Slyke. “Throughout his career—as researcher, teacher, advisor and mentor—he challenged colleagues and students to question conventional norms and to rethink issues through an interdisciplinary lens and rigorous research methodology.”

That’s what attracted Professor Douglas Wolf to Syracuse University more than two decades ago.  Wolf, now professor of public administration and international affairs and Gerald B. Cramer Professor of Aging Studies, says the interdisciplinary nature of the team and Greene’s approach to teaching reflected “the Maxwell way of looking at the world.”

“Vernon taught his students to ask the ‘central questions’ about the rationale for government intervention in people’s lives,” says Wolf. “He explored implications for public funding and policies involving the safety net, housing, organizational and community support. He included the neurosciences, biology and social sciences in his perspectives on aging.  His lens was broad and analytical.”

Greene referenced this approach in The Gerontologist in December, 1999 in his farewell message as he stepped down from his position as editor-in-chief.  “I have tried to steer a course for the journal that is multidisciplinary in substance and ecumenical in methodological philosophy.  As other journals in the (Gerontological Society of America) have increasingly defined their missions along section and disciplinary lines, I have tried to maintain and enhance the commitment of The Gerontologist to providing a venue for a reflective and scholarly conversation that seeks to broadly involve the Society as a whole.”  (Vol. 39, No. 6, 644).

“His legacy are the students whose work he supervised,” says Wolf.  “He was training people to be exceptionally rigorous in laying out the rationale and the tools for carrying out public services.”

“He was both big picture and a stickler for details,” says Stuart Bretschneider who, along with Greene, taught doctoral students research methodology.  Bretschneider is now director of the Center for Organization Research and Design at Arizona State University.  “Vernon trained a lot of people to do very careful, high quality analytical research.  He had high expectations for his students and worked tirelessly with them to help them achieve those expectations.”

Sarah Laditka, now professor emeritus in public health sciences, University of North Carolina at Charlotte, was one of Greene’s Ph.D. students. “Vernon was generous in sharing his wisdom and advice, which helped me greatly to succeed in my academic career. Vernon was never too busy to talk with me. When I needed his advice the most, he put meeting with me ahead of everything else. He was a role model for my entire career. I will always be inspired by Vernon’s dedication to mentoring graduate students in research and to promoting the health and well-being of older adults.”

Kristina Lambright, Greene’s graduate assistant from 1996-97, says he “influenced me to become a professor in public administration. The lessons I learned 25 years ago from Vernon about what it means to be a kind, thoughtful and conscientious faculty mentor continue to impact my own work with graduate students today as a professor at Binghamton University.”

Dean Van Slyke recalls that Greene served on his own mentoring committee when he first came to Syracuse as an assistant professor in 2004. “I recall people saying he’s exactly the kind of person you want on your mentoring committee because if you can make it by Vernon Greene, you can make it by most people.  Vernon was seen as a proxy for quality.  He did not suffer fools gladly. He was going to ask hard questions and scrutinize things.”

Bretschneider jokingly recalls that if Greene was in the audience for any research presentation, “he would invariably ask about some endogenous factor in the methodology, inspiring a comprehensive discussion of the issue. Vernon thought deeply about why things happen the way they do. He was a serious scholar who tackled the truly important things in life.”

Greene is survived by his wife of 42 years, Deborah Monahan, Emerita Professor of Social Work, Falk College of Sport and Human Dynamics, their daughter Rachel (Philip Roth) Greene; son, Samuel (Kseniia) Greene; brothers, Geoffrey (Carol) Greene, Mark (Dani) Greene; and several nieces and nephews.

October 18, 2021, By Eileen Korey, SU News

http://www.maxwell.syr.edu/news/stories/In_Memoriam__Vernon_L__Greene,_pioneer_in_the_study_of_aging/ 

“Beyond my wildest dreams.” That’s how sociology professor Jennifer Karas Montez describes her reaction to being named University Professor. The appointment is a prestigious distinction granted to faculty who excel in their fields and who have made extraordinary scholarly contributions as judged by their peers nationally and internationally. Montez’s appointment was recently approved by the Syracuse University Board of Trustees following recommendations from the sociology department, Maxwell School and University leadership.

“I absolutely love what I do,” says Montez, professor of sociology, Gerald B. Cramer Faculty Scholar in Aging Studies, director of the Center for Aging and Policy Studies (CAPS) and co-director of the Policy, Place, and Population Health Lab in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs. Montez has built a career around asking “big questions” in the search for solutions to some of life’s most pressing public health problems: Why do people in one state live longer than those in other states? Why is the United States losing ground in its international ranking in life expectancy? Why is life expectancy worse for lesser-educated adults than most other groups? What can be done to reverse these disturbing trends and change life trajectories?

Read the full SU News article here.