Dr. Tamara A. Baker is a Professor in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill. She is President of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), and a GSA Fellow, founder and co-convener of GSA’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCU) Collaborative Interest Group, and PI of the HBCU Aging Conference. She is the Editor-in-Chief of Ethnicity & Health, and has served on several national and international committees including the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Geriatric and Gerontology Advisory Committee, NIH’s Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee, and NIH’s Helping to End Addiction Long-Term (HEAL) Pain Strategic Plan’s Executive Committee. Her professional background has evolved into research agenda focusing on predictors and outcomes of chronic pain and health disparities among older Black adults. She is also active in establishing pathway programs increasing the gerontology/geriatrics medicine workforce.

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.

Sean P. Curran, PhD, is a Professor of Gerontology and Molecular and Computational Biology and the Vice Dean, Dean of Faculty, and Dean of Research for the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. He is co-director of the USC-Buck Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging. Curran developed the first-of-its-kind PhD program in Geroscience, which recruited its inaugural class in 2024. Curran’s research group has invested in defining molecular, genetic, and environmental factors that affect multiple health parameters (resistance to environmental and dietary stress, mobility, metabolism, reproductive fitness, and mitochondrial function) throughout life. The long-term goal is to generate blueprints that enable an individual to maximize their health over their lifespan. Informed by genetics, Curran’s lab develops the capacity to predict which diets are ideal for a healthy life and which should be avoided. Curran’s current research program is funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIA and NIGMS) and has received past research funding from the Ellison Medical Foundation, the American Federation for Aging Research (AFAR), and the American Heart Association. Curran is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and is the 2025 Vice Chair (Chair in 2026) of the GSA Biological Sciences Section. He has received numerous awards for his research, including the AFAR Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star in Aging Research Award, Paul F. Glenn Award, the Nathan Shock New Investigator Award (GSA), and the Ewald W. Busse Research Award. Curran’s mentoring has been recognized by the Mellon Foundation, and in 2019 he received the USC Provost’s Mentoring Award. He received his PhD in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology from UCLA and post-doctoral training at Harvard Medical School and the Massachusetts General Hospital.

A national leader in gerontology, Howard Degenholtz specializes in long-term services and supports and home- and community-based services. He developed self-reported quality-of-life measures for nursing home residents and co-authored a seminal paper on the benefits of the Green House model. His research has shown that older adults using consumer-directed personal care are not at increased risk of hospitalization, and he led a randomized trial demonstrating improved quality of life through tailored, individualized care planning. He has also studied end-of-life care in community and nursing home settings, examining advance directives and racial and ethnic disparities, with findings showing that older adults with advance care plans are less likely to experience terminal hospitalization. In organ and tissue donation, he developed and tested approaches to incorporate donor designation into primary care and implemented web-based training in driver’s license centers through randomized trials. He also hosts and produces The Gerontologist Podcast, published by the Gerontological Society of America and available on major podcast platforms.

Laura K.M. Donorfio, Ph.D., FGSA, FAGHE, is currently Chair of the AGHE member group and holds fellow status in both AGHE and GSA. She has been honored both nationally and locally for her many teaching accomplishments, including GSA's Clark Tibbets Award (2022) and AGHE's Distinguished Faculty award (2009). Dr. Donorfio has over 30 years of teaching and research experience in gerontology. She has developed an undergraduate minor in gerontology within the University of Connecticut Department of Human Development and Family Sciences. Her present research interests include the impact of educational innovation and intergenerational experiential learning approaches, and the behavioral and social processes that impact the development and well-being of sexual gender minority populations and their families across the lifespan. Dr. Donorfio is a co-author of the book "The Gerontology Field Placement: Internships and Practicums in Aging; (2023). She has directed the AGHE Teaching Institute for the past fourteen years.

She is an assistant professor at the University of Texas at Arlington College of Nursing and Health Innovation. Her research focuses on technology-based interventions—including video chat, wearable devices, virtual reality, and home monitoring—to improve quality of life for people living with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (AD/ADRD) and their caregivers. She currently leads two projects: the VIEW program, a video family-visit intervention for nursing home residents with AD/ADRD and their families; and the VICTORI program, which uses virtual reality simulation and AI-generated AD/ADRD patient scenarios to strengthen communication training for nursing students and caregivers. A member of the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) since 2017, she joined while pursuing her PhD at the University of Iowa College of Nursing. She has held several volunteer leadership roles within GSA’s Emerging Scholar and Professional Organization (ESPO), serving on the Dissertation Writing Group Task Force in 2021, as co-lead in 2022, and as lead in 2023. She has served as an ESPO section officer since 2024 and is the 2026 ESPO chair.

Dr. Chivon Mingo is a gerontologist joining the Gerontology Institute in the Fall of 2012. In 2003, Dr. Mingo received a B.S. in Psychology from Georgia State. Subsequently, she received a M.A. in Gerontology (2005) and a Ph.D. in Aging Studies (2010), both from the University of South Florida (USF) in Tampa, FL. Prior to joining the Georgia State Gerontology Institute, Dr. Mingo completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the Institute on Aging at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Dr. Mingo’s current research interests span psychology, health disparities, and aging. Specifically, her work has focused on identifying the causes of arthritis health disparities and ways to address them through community-based healthcare interventions. The ultimate goal of Dr. Mingo’s research is to design and evaluate culturally appropriate, appealing, and effective interventions for older adults with arthritis. In addition, use this research as a template to address disparities in other conditions (e.g., cancer, cardiovascular disease, diabetes) through community-based health care interventions. Dr. Mingo is the recipient of numerous awards and honors including the National Institutes of Health/National Center on Minority Health and Health Disparities Loan Repayment Award, McKnight Doctoral Fellowship, Arthritis Foundation Student Fellowship, Aging Exchange Day Best Research Award, USF Office of Research & Innovation and Graduate School Research Excellence Award, Southern Regional Student Conference in Gerontology and Geriatrics Keynote Speaker and the USF College of Behavioral and Community Sciences Research Excellence Award.