Erta Cenko is a Clinical Assistant Professor in the Department of Epidemiology, College of Public Health and Health Professions. Her research targets conditions that predominantly impact older adults, including cognitive impairment and mobility disability. Her focus is on developing and employing wearable technology applications to facilitate health interventions and provide real-time assessments for aging populations. She is committed to the field of public health and aims to combine her research experience with her passion for teaching and mentoring to help train future clinicians and public health professionals.

Abigail (Abby) Stephan, PhD, is a Research Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology and an affiliated faculty member at the Institute for Engaged Aging at Clemson University. Her research often employs a mixed methods approach and takes an interdisciplinary, systems-oriented perspective to a) explore the influence of intergenerational relationships in family, community, and educational contexts on learning, development, and well-being across the lifespan and b) examine social and psychological factors that promote healthy aging. Stephan is also committed to advancing the development, implementation, and evaluation of evidence-based educational opportunities that support learners across the lifespan. Two primary avenues for this work include a) creating resources and fostering mentorship opportunities to ensure high-quality training exists for current and future professionals in the field of gerontology and b) promoting lifelong learning through engaging and fulfilling learning experiences for older adults.

Itunu Akande is a lecturer and research fellow in the Department of Educational Technology and Library Studies, Obafemi Awolowo University (OAU). He teaches Digital Media and Learning, Diffusion and Adoption of Innovation, Developments in Educational Technology, and Fundamentals of Instructional Design. His research interests broadly surround the philosophical foundations of learning and the ecological frames (cultural, social, psychological) of technology-supported learning systems. With backgrounds in Electronic and Electrical Engineering, Media productions, and Education, his research embraces the intersections in STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts/humanities, and mathematics) and explores contexts of learning within these spheres. Itunu's collaborations with pre-service and in-service teachers drive his need to investigate teachers' measures of competence, particularly in technology-aided learning spaces, to improve teachers' professional development and ultimately learning outcomes.

Dr. Hollis is a Gerontologist and Assistant Professor of Practice in the Psychology Department at the University of Arizona. She also serves on the Executive Committee for the Innovations in Aging Graduate Programs. Before her academic role, she held positions in behavioral health, aging services, and nonprofit executive management. Her passion lies in preparing the next generation of professionals to advance services and advocate for older adults. Dr. Hollis was appointed to the Minority Issues in Gerontology Advisory Panel for the Gerontological Society of America and is Co-Chair of the Elder Alliance, an initiative housed at the United Way of Tucson and Southern Arizona. 

Cynthia holds a Master’s in Public Policy from the American Public University. Retired, December 2023, she was the Executive Director of the Atlantic County Area Agency on Aging (AAA) in New Jersey, with over 30 years’ experience working in older adult services. Currently, she is the Advocacy Consultant for the NJ AAA State Association, promoting older adult advocacy. Through her involvement with the New York Academy of Sciences, Cynthia was introduced to the ethical concerns when Artificial Intelligence intersects with this cohort, prompting her to take a deeper dive into this ethical digital divide. Her ability to speak and present on this topic at the NJ AAA State Associations 2024 annual retreat, GSA’s 2024 Poster Presentation, and USAging’s 2025 Conference, showed that various actors have an opportunity to learn about these AI ethical concerns

Jessica A. Kelley, PhD, is Professor of Sociology whose research examines health disparities across the life course, focusing on race, socioeconomic status, disability, and aging. An expert in quantitative analysis of longitudinal data, she has published widely on life course influences on functional health, cohort trends, and social inequality in later life. She is Editor-in-Chief of the Journal of Gerontology: Social Sciences (2021–2024) and Co-Editor of the Annual Review of Gerontology and Geriatrics. Dr. Kelley also serves on several editorial and advisory boards and has been recognized with awards for her contributions to aging research.

Bussarawan “Puk” Teerawichitchainan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology and Anthropology and Co-Director of the Centre for Family and Population Research at the National University of Singapore. Her research focuses on family demography, aging, and the life course in Asia, with ongoing projects examining the long-term impacts of war trauma on the health and well-being of older Vietnamese war survivors and the dynamics of childless aging in Singapore and Thailand.

Mieke Beth Thomeer is a professor in the Department of Sociology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham. Her research focuses on how families matter for health throughout the life course, with a specific focus on processes related to gender, race/ethnicity, and sexuality. Her research on childbearing biographies and mid- and later-life health is supported by the National Institute on Aging. She is a former Deputy Editor for the Journal of Marriage and Family.

Yanping Jiang is an Assistant Professor in the Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research and the Department of Family Medicine and Community Health at Rutgers University. She completed postdoctoral training in Health Psychology at Wayne State University and received her PhD in Health Promotion, Education, and Promotion at the University of South Carolina, Columbia. Dr. Jiang’s research focuses on advancing the understanding of the biopsychosocial processes through which neighborhood and social factors affect health outcomes in older adults, including older Asian Americans. Her long-term goal is to translate findings from her research and the broader literature into culturally sensitive, scalable intervention strategies to promote healthy aging.

Dr. Perone is the Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services and an Assistant Professor at the University of California, Berkeley School of Social Welfare. She is a licensed attorney and interdisciplinary scholar. Prior to her current role, she previously served as a senior health policy fellow at the U.S. Senate and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. She also practiced law for nearly ten years and served as the Executive Director for a community-based nonprofit serving LGBTQIA+ older adults in the United States. Her research examines equitable aging, including intersections in long-term care, LGBTQIA+ aging, and health policy.

Joseph Saenz is an assistant professor with the Center for Innovation in Healthy and Resilient Aging. He focuses his work on understanding and explaining disparities in late-life cognitive outcomes using socioeconomic status, marriage, resilience, and environmental exposures throughout the life-course. He is especially interested in health disparities within the Mexican origin population on both sides of the United States Mexico border.

Suzan van der Pas, PhD, is an associate professor at the Department of Public Health and Primary Care/Health Campus The Hague, Leiden University Medical Centre in The Hague, The Netherlands. Dr. van der Pas earned her PhD at the Vrije University Amsterdam, and her MA in Sociology at the University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She is a family sociologist and gerontologist with an emphasis on the governance of healthcare and welfare, with a particular focus on ageing. Her research examines processes that enhance intersectoral collaboration in healthcare and social care through an interdisciplinary and applied approach. Her work addresses organizational collaboration across health and social domains, patient and client involvement in community health and prevention, and the influence of social determinants of health on wellbeing.

Mo-Kyung Sin is a Dr. Lester and Mary Ann Sauvage Endowed Professor at Seattle University College of Nursing (SU CON). She is an experienced educator and a leader, as well as a NIH-funded researcher. Mo has been working at SU CON since 2004. She enjoys interacting with her students and feels privileged to be a part of her students' career development. Mo is currently serving as a chair of the Gerontological Society of America Health Sciences Section, which she enjoys very much and feels grateful for the opportunity. My research focus includes ADRD, biomarkers for cerebral amyloid angiopathy, chronic diseases, and neuropathologies. Mo collaborates with great researchers across the U.S. (and feels blessed). In her spare time, she enjoys movies, spending time with friends, cooking, and walking.

Dr. Elizabeth Vásquez is an Associate Professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at the University at Albany School of Public Health and the Director of the Center for Elimination of Minority Health Disparities. Dr. Vásquez's research examines the individual-level indicators and the ecological impact of social context, which contributes to differential health outcomes in older racial and ethnically diverse populations, in particular, Latinos. Dr. Vásquez is a fellow with the Sustained Training in Aging and HIV Research (STAHR) program and an affiliated investigator with the Study of Latinos (SOL). She is an alumna of Programs to Increase Diversity among Individuals Engaged in Health-Related Research (PRIDE), the National Institute of Aging Butler-Williams Scholars Program, and the Hispanic Leadership Institute (HLI).

Katie Trainum, PhD, RN is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Center for Health Outcomes and Policy Research, with a dual appointment as a postdoctoral fellow in the National Clinician Scholars Program at Perelman School of Medicine. Dr. Trainum’s research explores how policy, financing, and workforce factors shape access to and quality of long-term care, particularly for older adults and Veterans. She is also interested in emerging models of care and their implications for nurse workflow, staffing, and wellbeing. For her dissertation, she collected primary data from nursing staff in Texas long-term care facilities to understand their attitudes and preferences related to care robots. Originally from northern Virginia, Dr. Trainum earned her BSN from the University of Virginia. She worked as a bedside RN for five years before completing her PhD in Nursing from the University of Texas at Austin.

Mark Yim is the Asa Whitney Professor of Mechanical Engineering at the University of Pennsylvania. For more than three decades, he has led pioneering research in modular robotics, with projects ranging from a humanoid robot featured at the Philadelphia Museum of Art to the world’s smallest self-powered flying robot. His research interests span product design, robotic performance art, novel locomotion, and steerable needles, with applications in areas such as urban search and rescue and healthcare. At Penn, Dr. Yim serves as Faculty Director of the Integrated Product Design Program and Co-Director of Penn4C, a nursing–engineering–community collaboratory. Before joining academia, he spent a decade in industry, including roles as Principal Scientist at the Palo Alto Research Center (formerly Xerox PARC) and at Virtual Technologies, a virtual reality startup. He earned his PhD in Mechanical Engineering from Stanford University.

Dr. Cacchione is the Ralston House Term Chair in Gerontological Nursing, Professor of Geropsychiatric Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing, and Nurse Scientist at Penn Presbyterian Medical Center. She is a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner who has practiced for over 30 years across the care continuum. She is a nurse innovator. Her research focuses on social robotics for older adults. She is the CEO and Founder of AgingSense, a startup technology company to improve the lives of older adults. Dr Cacchione received her BSN from Villanova University, MSN from Marymount University, and PhD from Saint Louis University. She completed postdoctoral training at the University of Iowa. Dr. Cacchione has over 100 publications and is the Past Editor in Chief of Clinical Nursing Research and International Journal. Dr. Cacchione is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and the American Academy of Nursing.

Dr. Ganesh Babulal is an Associate Professor of Neurology at Washington University School of Medicine, and Director of two laboratories, The DRIVES Project and ARCHES. He is also a faculty member at the Institute of Public Health and a research associate at the University of Johannesburg in South Africa. Dr. Babulal’s research seeks to understand the relationship between cognition and mental health and its impact on instrumental activities of daily living, such as driving, in healthy older adults and those with chronic neurological diseases. There is an intentional focus on healthy aging, protective factors that support brain health, and risk factors for dementia among older adults. Dr. Babulal has published eight book chapters and over 120+ scientific peer-reviewed research articles in high-impact journals, including Neurology, Journal of the American Medical Association, Alzheimer’s and Dementia, Annals of Neurology, Sleep, and the American Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry.

Maiya Geddes is a Neurologist Scientist and Associate Professor at McGill University where she leads a lab at the Montreal Neurological Institute. Her research program aims to characterize the neurobiological underpinnings of motivated lifestyle behaviour change using neuroimaging, behavioural and computational approaches. She applies this new knowledge to design and implement clinical trials for neurodegenerative disease prevention, with the goal of helping older adults lead healthier and more fulfilling lives. Dr. Geddes completed medical school at UBC, a residency in Neurology at McGill followed by a CIHR postdoctoral fellowship at MIT and a second fellowship in Behavioral Neurology and Neuropsychiatry at Harvard. After her fellowship, she joined the faculty at Harvard before returning to McGill. Dr. Geddes is a Killam Scholar, the recipient of the 2024 Brain Canada Future Leaders award, the 2023 Alzheimer Society Research Program New Investigator Award, and the American Neuropsychiatric Association Career Development Award.

Duke Han, PhD, is a Diplomate of the American Board of Professional Psychology in Clinical Neuropsychology, a Fellow of the American Psychological Association and the National Academy of Neuropsychology, and a tenured Professor of Psychology, Family Medicine, Neurology, and Gerontology at the University of Southern California (USC). Dr. Han is interested in factors that impact cognition and decision making in aging. In addition to directing his own research lab, he serves as the Editor-In-Chief of The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences, Co-Director of the Scientific Research Network on Decision Neuroscience in Aging, and Co-Leader of the Research and Education Core for the USC Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center.

Karen Fingerman, PhD, is the Sonia Wilson Professor of Human Ecology and Professor of Human Development & Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. An internationally recognized scholar of adult development and aging, she directs the Texas Longevity Consortium and serves as Research Director of the NIA-funded Center on Aging & Population Sciences. Dr. Fingerman has published nearly 200 papers and chapters on social and emotional aspects of aging, including family, friendship, and caregiving ties. Her current projects include NIA-funded studies on caregiving for individuals with Lewy Body Dementia, young adult caregivers, hearing aid use in later life, and longitudinal investigations of family exchanges and daily well-being. She has received numerous honors for her scholarship and mentorship, including the Baltes Award for Distinguished Research Achievement in Psychology and Aging (APA, 2022) and the Distinguished Mentorship in Gerontology Award (GSA, 2020).

Hai-Xin Jiang is a Ph.D. student in the Department of Psychology at Southwest University. Her research focuses on the psychosocial determinants of aging, particularly loneliness, social isolation, and their asymmetry in relation to physical and mental health in later life. Methodologically, her interests include structural equation modeling, multi-state Markov models, network analysis, and the application of machine learning to large-scale longitudinal datasets. Her related research has been published in journals such as The Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences, Geriatric Nursing, and Clinical Gerontologist. Her recent project has decoded the key features distinguishing social resilience from social vulnerability and has constructed a biopsychosocial model of social asymmetry in later life. Jiang is committed to providing scientific evidence to inform public policy aimed at strengthening social resilience and promoting healthy aging.

Dr. Hu is an Associate Professor at the Department of Management, Policy, and Community Health (MPACH) at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (UTHealth Houston) School of Public Health. She received her Ph.D. in Survey and Data Science at the University of Michigan in 2018. Prior to joining UTHealth, Dr. Hu worked as an Assistant Research Scientist at the Survey Research Center, Institute for Social Research at the University of Michigan, where she currently holds an adjunct faculty position. Dr. Hu’s research interests include measurement errors in aging surveys, survey non-response, longitudinal survey data analysis and the use of machine learning in survey research. Dr. Hu is currently collaborating with the National Health and Aging Trends Study and National Study of Caregiving as a co-Investigator to enhance user outreach and evaluate new data collection designs.

Dr. Luke Stoeckel is a licensed clinical neuropsychologist and cognitive neuroscientist. He directs the Neuropsychological Change, Interventions, and Decision Science Programs in the Division of Behavioral and Social Research at the National Institute on Aging at the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Stoeckel completed his undergraduate studies at Harvard College, his PhD in Medical/Clinical Psychology at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, and his internship and postdoctoral training in clinical neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience at Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH), McLean Hospital, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), and Harvard Medical School (HMS). Prior to joining NIH, he was the Director of Clinical Neuroscience at the MGH Center for Addiction Medicine, Assistant Professor of Psychology at Harvard Medical School, Affiliated faculty at the Martinos Center for Biomedical Engineering at MGH, and a Visiting Scientist at McLean Hospital and the McGovern Institute for Brain Research at MIT.

Jing Yu earned her PhD in psychology from the Institute of Psychology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in 2012 and was a visiting scholar at the University of Basel's Department of Psychology from 2014 to 2015. She is currently a professor of psychology at Southwest University in Chongqing, China. Her research centers on aging, including cognitive aging, sleep and aging, and social functioning in older adults. She has published over 70 peer-reviewed papers and received multiple grants from the National Natural Science Foundation of China and the Ministry of Education.

Zexi Zhou is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Human Development and Family Sciences at the University of Texas at Austin. Her research examines daily stress and adaptive processes in successful aging, with a particular focus on the interplay between sleep and psychosocial experiences in older adults’ everyday lives. She is also interested in intergenerational relationships across the lifespan, studied through a culturally sensitive lens. Her work integrates multiple methods, including self-report surveys, neuroimaging, ecological momentary assessment, and real-life observational approaches such as accelerometry and naturalistic audio recordings. She has published over 20 papers in top-tier journals such as The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, Journal of Neuroscience, and Journal of Psychosomatic Research. She received Steve Duck New Scholars Award from International Association for Relationship Research in 2024, and Anne Anastasi General Psychology Graduate Student Research Award from American Psychological Association in 2025.

Brinleigh Murphy-Reuter is the Founder and CEO of Science To People, a social impact organization dedicated to making science accessible, understandable, and culturally relevant at scale. Drawing on her background at YouTube and Google, and her master’s in Learning Design, Innovation, and Technology from Harvard, she builds tools and strategies that help institutions, creators, and communicators share accurate, evidence-based information with the public. Their flagship project, VeriSci, is a purpose-built AI language model for science and health communication, complemented by Akari and VeriComms- two content creator-facing platforms that transform complex research into engaging, shareable content. Brinleigh’s work bridges the gap between academic expertise and public understanding, with a focus on health and wellbeing.

Dr. Moored is an Assistant Research Professor in the Department of Mental Health at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health (JHSPH). He completed his PhD in Mental Health at JHSPH and postdoctoral training in the epidemiology of aging at the University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health. He is an epidemiologist with research experience in neurocognitive aging, prevention science, and lifespan activity engagement. His research integrates survey, wearable device (e.g., GPS), and geospatial data sources to better understand how activity and the built and social environments contribute to lifespan mental health, including neurocognitive functioning and fatigue as we age. His goal is to use these findings to inform structural and individual-level interventions that promote brain health as we age in place.

Tara Klinedinst is an occupational therapist and Assistant Professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Sciences, College of Allied Health at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, based at the Schusterman Campus in Tulsa. Her research focuses on two core areas: (1) developing interventions to prevent and reduce disability and enhance participation in health management among adults with chronic conditions and their care partners, and (2) integrating evidence-based screening and referral pathways into primary care clinics to improve function and quality of life. She is an active member of the Gerontological Society of America and the American Occupational Therapy Association. Dedicated to advancing interdisciplinary collaboration, she seeks to strengthen partnerships that enhance health care experiences and outcomes for older adults and their care partners. Outside of her professional work, she enjoys camping, hiking, biking, and swimming with her husband, daughter, and their dog, Ziggy.

Jennifer Brach is a physical therapist and epidemiologist with over 25 years of experience conducting patient-centered research in aging and mobility. She is also the Director of the Pittsburgh Pepper Center.

Dr. Amie Bunker currently serves as the Program Manager for the Melanoma Research Program within the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs, where she is responsible for the execution and management of tax-payer dollars supporting biomedical research in the field of melanoma. Her responsibilities include annual review of the program vision and mission, development and release of research funding opportunities, overseeing the two-tier review of research proposals, and overall program management and evaluation. Dr. Bunker joined the CDMRP in 2015, and has managed research spanning many scientific topics, covering basic, translation, and clinical studies. Her prior academic work primarily focused on biophysics and studying the mechanisms of gene regulation. She earned a BS in Biology (with Honors) from Towson University and holds a Ph.D. in Pharmaceutical Sciences from the University of Colorado Anschutz Medical Campus.

Dr. Eisenstein is a Senior Program Officer and Director of Research & Evaluation at RRF Foundation for Aging in Chicago, Illinois. She has worked in the combined fields of gerontology and public health for over 20 years and has held a variety of positions in both academic and community-based settings. She is passionate about working to advance equitable opportunities for older adults to achieve and maintain high levels of dignity and quality of life. Dr. Eisenstein is an Ambassador for the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute, a Fellow of The Gerontological Society of America, and holds an Adjunct appointment at the University of Illinois at Chicago, in the School of Public Health.

Dr. Sarah Fontaine currently serves as the Program Manager for Alzheimer’s Research Program (AZRP), and the Neurotrauma Portfolio at the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs at Fort Detrick, MD. As program manager, she is responsible for the execution and management of tax- payer dollars supporting investigation into these critical brain health areas for Service Members, Veterans, and other individuals living with these conditions. From 2010-2018 Dr. Fontaine held research appointments the University of Kentucky, Lexington, KY, the University of South Florida, Tampa, FL, and Indiana University, Bloomington, IN, where she directed research on traumatic brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, and other tauopathies. Her work focused on understanding molecular mechanisms, pathways, and therapeutic strategies for neurodegenerative conditions and neurotraumatic injuries. Dr. Fontaine completed her Ph.D. in Biochemistry at the University of Bath in Bath, England, U.K., and earned her bachelor’s degree from Purdue University, West Lafayette, IN, majoring in Animal Sciences.

Dr. Cara Leahy is the Director of Cognitive Disorders at the Memorial Healthcare Institute for Neuroscience, in Owosso, MI. She is recognized for her leadership in Alzheimer’s disease diagnosis, treatment, with active roles in clinical practice and research. Her clinical and academic interests center on the integration of biomarker-based diagnostics into community and specialty neurology settings. Dr. Leahy completed her neurology residency at Michigan State University and has held faculty appointments at Michigan State University College of Osteopathic Medicine and Central Michigan University College of Medicine. She was named Outstanding Educator of the Year in 2024 and has presented at national and institutional forums, including the Alzheimer’s Association International Conference, American Academy of Neurology, and the J.P. Morgan Healthcare Conference. Dr. Leahy has led initiatives to advance early diagnosis and care for patients with Alzheimer’s disease. Her work bridges clinical innovation, research, and compassionate care for patients with cognitive disorders.

Dr. Cliff Singer is a psychiatrist and geriatrician. He is medical director of the Memory and Aging program at Northern Light Acadia Hospital in Bangor, Maine and Research Professor at the University of Maine Institute of Medicine. He has received numerous awards for teaching, research and clinical work with older adults and persons with dementia in both Oregon and Maine and has been selected by peers to “Best Doctors in America” every year since 2004.