Tamara Baker, PhD, FGSA, is a professor in the Department of Psychiatry in the School of Medicine at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She is an appointed member of the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs Geriatrics and Gerontology Advisory Committee, the National Institutes of Health Interagency Pain Research Coordinating Committee, and Editor-in-Chief of Ethnicity & Health. Among Dr. Baker’s activities with the Gerontological Society of America (GSA), she is a former GSA Secretary, served as Chair of the GSA Committee on Minority Issues in Gerontology, founder and co-convener of GSA’s Historically Black Colleges and Universities Collaborative Interest Group, former Chair of the Behavioral and Social Sciences Section, and is the GSA Board of Directors Vice President Elect. Her background in gerontology, psychology, and biobehavioral health has evolved into an active research agenda focusing on health disparities/equity as well as understanding the behavioral and psychosocial predictors and outcomes of chronic pain and pain among older Black adults.

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, PhD, FAGHE, is an Associate Professor at the University of Connecticut in Human Development and Family Sciences. Dr. Donorfio presently serves as the AGHE Vice Chair. She is the co-author of the book The Gerontology Field Placement: Internships and Practicums in Aging (2023, Springer). Her present research interests include the impact of educational innovation and intergenerational experiential learning and, most recently, how social processes impact the health and well-being of older SGM populations. Prior to joining UConn, Dr. Donorfio was a corporate gerontologist and director of consumer research for The Hartford Financial Services Group, collaborating with AARP and the MIT AgeLab. In 2011, she started AGHE’s first Teaching Institute, which is now in its 14th year. Dr. Donorfio holds fellow status in AGHE (2014), was awarded the Clark Tibbitts Award (2022), and was awarded AGHE’s Distinguished Teacher Designation (2009).

Sohyun Kim's research interest focuses on leveraging technology-based interventions such as video chat, wearable devices, virtual reality, AI, and home monitoring to enhance the quality of life for family and formal caregivers and persons living with dementia and older adults. She actively collaborated in NIH-funded clinical trials, including training interventions for nursing home staff to reduce elderspeak communication and resistance to care in residents with dementia, telehealth intervention using video consulting to support caregiver well-being and manage problematic behaviors, interventions targeting family involvement in care for persons living with dementia in nursing home, and the development and testing of a measure assessing dyadic interaction during mealtime between nursing home staff and residents with dementia. Sohyun also conducted research as a primary investigator focusing on Korean dementia family caregivers’ difficulties and coping strategies, systematic reviews of instruments in dementia care, and development and psychometric testing of the instrument assessing dyadic communication between persons living with dementia and their family caregivers. One of her research projects is a feasibility study in providing regular video family visits for residents in LTSS and their family caregivers. Specifically, this intervention consists of using web conferencing and wristbands for real-time monitoring of physiological data.

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.