Nancy J. Donovan
Nancy J. Donovan, M.D. is a board-certified geriatric psychiatrist and is Chief of the Division of Geriatric Psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital. She has special interests in the medicine-psychiatry interface and geriatric medicine and psychiatry. Dr. Donovan studies the connection between neuropsychiatric symptoms and their underlying biological substrate, including the association between a number of emotional and behavioral symptoms (such as loneliness) and preclinical Alzheimer’s Disease. She received her medical degree from the Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons and completed psychiatric residency training at Stanford University Medical Center. She is Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School and previously served on the clinical faculties of the University of Medicine and Dentistry - New Jersey Medical School, and the Stanford University School of Medicine.
Robert Espinoza
Robert Espinoza, M.P.A. is the Vice President of Policy at PHI, an organization focused on the direct care workforce, where he oversees its national policy advocacy, research, and strategic communications division. For more than 20 years, Mr. Espinoza has spearheaded high-profile advocacy campaigns and written landmark reports on aging and long-term care, lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) rights, racial justice, and immigration, among other topics. Prior to PHI, he served as the Senior Director for Public Policy and Communications at SAGE, the country’s premier organization for LGBT older adults. In 2010, he co-founded the Diverse Elders Coalition, a historic, federal coalition focused on improving aging supports for communities of color and LGBT communities. Robert received his MPA, with honors, from New York University, and his BA in English and BS in Journalism from the University of Colorado at Boulder.
Colleen Galambos
Colleen Galambos, Ph.D., ACSW, LCSW-C, FGSA is the Helen Bader Endowed Chair in Applied Gerontology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and joined the faculty at the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare in 2018. She is a Center Scientist with the Center for Aging and Translational Research and a Member of the Clinical and Translational Science Institute of Southeast Wisconsin. She currently serves as Chair of the National Association of Social Workers Aging Practice Section Committee and Secretary General of the North American Chapter of the International Society of Gerontechnology. Dr. Galambos’ practice experience includes clinical, administrative, policy, and research positions in a variety of health and long term care organizations. She is a fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and a National Association of Social Workers Pioneer. Dr. Galambos was previously a professor at the University of Missouri where she was associate director for research in the School of Social Work and directed a certificate program and interdisciplinary graduate minor in gerontology. She is the author of three books and over 100 peer reviewed publications. Dr. Galambos’ research interests include care transitions and advance care planning, aging in place, health and long term care, systems quality improvement, gerontechnology, and interprofessional practice.
Julianne Holt-Lunstad
Julianne Holt-Lunstad, Ph.D., is a professor at Brigham Young University. She focuses her research on the long-term health effects of social connection. Her work has been seminal in the recognition of social isolation and loneliness as risk factors for early mortality. Dr. Holt-Lunstad has worked with government organizations aimed at addressing this issue. She has provided expert testimony in a US Congressional Hearing, provided expert recommendations for the US Surgeon General Emotional Well-Being in America Initiative, and is currently a member of the technical working group for the UK Cross Departmental Loneliness Team. She also serves as a scientific advisor for the Australian Coalition to End Loneliness, the Foundation for Art & Healing, and research advisory panel for AARP Services, Inc., United Healthcare, and Rural Aging.
James S. House
James S. House, Ph.D. is the Angus Campbell Distinguished University Professor Emeritus of Survey Research, Public Policy, and Sociology at the University of Michigan Institute for Social Research, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, the National Academy of Medicine, and the National Academy of Sciences. He received his B.A. in History (minor in Psychology) from Haverford College and his Ph.D. in Social Psychology from the University of Michigan. His research career has focused on the role of social and psychological factors in the etiology and course of health and illness, initially on occupational stress and health, then social relationships and support in relation to health, and currently on the role of psychosocial factors in understanding and alleviating social disparities in health and the way health changes with age. Professor House has been founding Principal Investigator or Co-Principal Investigator of the Americans' Changing Lives (ACL) study, the Changing Lives of Older Couples (CLOC) study, and the Chicago Community Adult Health Study (CCAHS).
Kathleen McGarry
Kathleen McGarry, Ph.D. is a Professor of Economics at the University of California, Los Angeles and a Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER). She was previously a Professor of Economics at Dartmouth College and served as a Senior Economist at the White House Council of Economic Advisers. Professor McGarry’s research focuses on the well-being of the elderly with particular attention paid to public and private transfers, including the Medicare and SSI programs, and the transfer of resources within families. Her research combines work on the financial aspects of aging with issues related to health economics to examine insurance coverage among the elderly. Professor McGarry’s current work analyzes the importance of end of life medical expenses, particularly expenses associated with nursing homes and home health care, and differences in spending by disability status.
Jeanne Miranda
Jeanne Miranda, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Biobehavioral Sciences at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). She is a mental health services researcher who has focused her work on providing mental health care to low-income and minority communities. She holds a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology from University of Kansas and completed post-doctoral training at University of California, San Francisco. Dr. Miranda's major research contributions have been in evaluating the impact of mental health care for ethnic minority communities. She is an investigator in two UCLA centers focusing on improving disparities in health care for ethnic minorities. She was the Senior Scientific Editor of Mental Health: Culture, Race and Ethnicity, A Supplement to Mental Health: A Report of the Surgeon General (2001). She became a member of the National Academy of Medicine in 2005 and was the 2008 recipient of the Emily Mumford Award for Contributions to Social Medicine from Columbia University.
Laurie L. Novak
Laurie Lovett Novak, Ph.D., M.H.S.A. is an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Informatics in the School of Medicine at Vanderbilt University. She conducts ethnographic research to advance theory and contribute to the development of technology and social interventions in several domains. These include the management of chronic illness in everyday life in the elderly and in other populations, the implementation of technology and other new routines into everyday work practices in health care, and the social and ethical dimensions of new forms of population management in health care. Other areas of interest include collaboration with data scientists in technology design and advancing our understanding of storytelling in health settings. In the Biomedical Informatics graduate program, Dr. Novak teaches qualitative methods and conducts a semester-long seminar on Technology & Society. She received a B.A. in finance from Murray State University, M.H.S.A. in health management and policy from the University of Michigan, and Ph.D. in medical and organizational anthropology from Wayne State University.
Carla Perissinotto
Carla Perissinotto, M.D., M.H.S. was appointed as the first Associate Chief for Geriatrics Clinical Programs at UCSF in 2017, and is an Associate Professor in the Division of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine. Dr. Perissinotto is Board Certified in Internal Medicine, Geriatrics and Palliative Medicine. Her main work is in UCSF Care at Home--which provides medical care to home bound older adults, and in embedded Geriatrics consult practices. From 2008-2017, Dr. Perissinotto spent a portion of her clinical time at the Over 60 Health Center, a Federally Qualified Health Center, serving adults over age 55 in Alameda County. At Over 60, Dr. Perissinotto directed the educational programs for UCSF learners, and focused on practice change by establishing a team-based model for community-based Geriatrics seeing adults across a continuum of care. Dr. Perissinotto gained national and international recognition for her research on the effects of loneliness on the health of older adults.
Juliann G. Sebastian
Juliann G. Sebastian, Ph.D., R.N., FAAN is Dean of the College of Nursing at the University of Nebraska Medical Center. Her areas of expertise are organization of care delivery systems, care for underserved populations, academic nursing practice, nurse-managed health centers, and doctor of nursing practice program curricula. Dr. Sebastian earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in nursing from the University of Kentucky (UK) College of Nursing and a doctorate in business administration from UK’s College of Business and Economics. She served as chair of the board of directors for the American Association of Colleges of Nursing (2016-18) and is a member of the boards of directors of two non-profit organizations in Nebraska. She has presented at numerous national and international conferences and has published numerous papers, book chapters, abstracts and three books related to community nursing. In 1999, Dr. Sebastian was inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing.
