Aging conference: Part 2 paying attention to STEP

As the second day of the conference began on Wednesday at 8 am, I was torn between workshop choices: 

• Launching Leaders: Getting a Head Start on a Career in Aging, hosted by Students to Emerging Professionals (STEP), or
• Healthy Environments Across Generations: A Life Course Approach to Health (Aging 101, Physical Health & Aging) with Rick Moody

I’d already missed Moody on my first day due to volunteer duty.  Now I’d miss him again, this time drawn to the former workshop in hopes that it would address some of my concerns about starting all over again as I launch my encore career as gerontologist.  Malcolm Gladwell said it takes 10,000 hours to be an expert, and I feel like I’m building on my employee benefits background as issues of retirement income security and health care are universal throughout the life course. 

The five panelists discussed networking (LinkedIn), researching opportunities (LinkedIn), effective resumes, cover letter, interviews and professionalism (be careful what you post on LinkedIn).  I heard LinkedIn so often that I wondered if they were investors?  After the presentations, I was pleased to be paired up with Amy Eisenstein, the only one of the five panelists who has MA Gerontology (as well as PhD in Public Health and Aging), to review my resume.  She encouraged me to attend STEP Networking Event that evening, where I chatted and ate with others in-person until 10 pm.  I could never spend that much quality time and enjoy food through LinkedIn.

Agora’s headless and armless sculptures milling about anonymously in Chicago’s Grant Park

I wondered whether MA Gerontology would make me stand out like being an ERISA geek.  When I worked in the employee benefits field, not only could I charge my firm’s premium billable rate to delve into the arcane intricacies of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), but even laypeople wanted to talk shop, like ask me variations of Whitman’s 7 Unsolved Mysteries in Aging Policy, especially how could they be financially independent so they could retire by age 40 and then really live the life they want? (Sure there were jokes about ERISA standing for Every Ridiculous Idea Since Adam, and ERISA hotties at http://abovethelaw.com/2006/09/erisa-hotties-the-winners/, but at least ERISA practitioners were valued and I miss having recruiters find work for me.)  Now when I say that I’m attending an aging conference, older persons will say, hey, I can teach you about that!

 

Where’s the respect for gerontology? When I say that I’m studying gerontology, some people assume I’m preparing for a career in assisted living or nursing home.  I suppose I can’t fault them for thinking that way because most scholarships available to SFSU gerontology students are awarded to those who intend to work in institutionalized settings.  Is gerontology unpopular because it’s associated with institutionalization, which most people would like to avoid?  My interest is in health promotion and aging in place through home and community-based programs.  However, it seems employers in these programs prefer hiring graduates in social work or counseling. 

While I’m on my soapbox, seems I also can’t fault people when they assume my membership in Sigma Phi Omega is the Asian-American sorority (dot-com) founded in 1949, rather than the gerontology national academic honor society founded in 1980 (http://www.sigmaphiomega.org/)?

 

STEP Career Trajectory Panel (left to right) was moderated by Jarmin Yeh (PhD student at UCSF). 

• Kathy Sykes (MA Public Policy) came into the aging field through serendipity, as the daughter of advocate Jim Sykes, who brought to their home visitors like Arthur Flemming (U.S. Commissioner on Aging during Nixon administration), Bernice Neugarten (gerontologist) and Claude Pepper (former U.S. Senator from Florida who championed elderly rights).  As Senior Advisor at the Environmental Protection Agency’s Aging Initiative, she was one of few federal government representatives attending the conference due to sequestration.  She also told us about Older Americans 2012 databook and other useful publications that can be ordered via her office at http://epa.gov/aging/resources/factsheets/order.htm.

• Mauro Hernandez grew up helping his father who developed assisted living housing, which led to an academic career (BS Business, PhD Sociology) before returning to the family business as CEO.
• Cathy Spensley (who has sought-after MSW, LCSW credentials) encouraged me with her mid-career change from journalist to Senior Services Director at Family Service Agency in SF. 
• Alan DeLa Torre (BA Sociology, PhD Urban Studies) is Project Manager for Portland’s Age-Friendly Cities Project.

While I found them awesomely inspiring, I wondered about the absence of MA Gerontology credential – an endangered species?

SFSU Gerontology Professor Brian de Vries convened Gerontology and Geriatric Education Peer Group, which opened up with an almost existentialist discussion about defining gerontology as a field of study.  SFSU’s own MA Gerontology Program consists of ten required “gerontology” courses (http://www.sfsu.edu/~bulletin/current/programs/geronto.htm), which I’ve decided to list on my resume since people often ask me, “what exactly do you study?”  Since gerontology is interdisciplinary, some topics are repeated in different courses and one classmate seemed to find her calling as she made identical final presentations on legalizing physician-assisted suicide for the three classes that we took together last semester.

SFSU Gerontology Professor Anabel Pelham and others recommend raising the stature of the gerontology field by accreditation of gerontology programs and the credentialing of gerontology graduates (read “Professionalizing Gerontology: Why AGHE Must Accredit Gerontology Programs” at http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22289063).

Charting new frontiers in aging at GSA

Had a blast attending my first Gerontological Society of America (GSA) Annual Scientific Meeting in San Diego (http://www.geron.org/annual-meeting)!  Upon arrival, I was briefly distracted when I (foodie that I am) learned that the 9^th annual San Diego Bay Wine & Food Festival was taking place at the same time . . . but there was no time to discreetly frolic and detour because our GSA meeting was jam-packed with events scheduled from 6 am until 10 pm:  symposium and poster sessions, breakfasts and section business meeting lunches, award presentations and receptions, evening interest group meetings and dinners, film screening, mentoring and networking, exhibit hall visits, etc.

San Diego Welcomes signs: International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans conference ending just as our GSA meeting was beginning seemed to represent my own career transition from employee benefits to gerontology!  I hold a Certified Employee Benefits Specialist (CEBS) designation from International Foundation and the Wharton School, so I’d attend the annual conferences as part of my continuing education.  Since my previous career involved helping people with retirement security, the next logical step seems to be helping people during their retirement with all the issues that arise with aging--including their own retirement income crisis due to the declining three-legged stool (Social Security + employer-sponsored pensions + personal savings), increasing health care costs, longer life expectancies, etc.

 

Buffet of rainbow-colored ribbons:  Gerontology is an interdisciplinary field representing BS (Biological Sciences-orange), BSS (Behavioral & Social Sciences-green), HS (Health Sciences-blue) and SRPP (Social Research, Policy & Practice-red). 

Ribbons for my name badge: New Member (gold), SRPP (red), ESPO (Emerging Scholar and Professional Organization-purple) and Award Winner (yellow).

President’s Welcome Reception:  spotted Bobbie Yee, my aunt’s high school classmate who played matchmaker between my aunt and her cousin.  Bobbie was bridesmaid and I was flower girl at their wedding several decades ago!  Bobbie was also my introduction to the study of gerontology (“what are you studying?” I remember asking).

Exhibit Hall Opening & Poster Session:  this eye-catching poster on alcohol use in Stockholm displays the colorful fusion of arts & sciences.

ESPO Breakfast & Community Meeting:  immediately followed New Member Meet & Greet so I enjoyed a second breakfast at Marriott :-)  My attendance here was mandatory to receive Carol Schutz Award.  Thank you GSA and my accommodating SFSU professors for excusing my absence from classes last week so I could attend this awesome meeting!

President’s Opening Plenary Session:  GSA President Nancy Whitelaw told us that this year’s meeting was her 40^th!  Wow, she also mentioned there were 3,600 registered attendees, including 600 international attendees from 30 different countries!

GSA Executive Director James Appleby: great man who signed check for my award, thank you!

Keynote speaker James Fowler:  UC San Diego Professor of Medical Genetics and Political Science and author of Connected: The Surprising Power of our Social Networks and How They Shape Our Lives, discussed the social spread of obesity, smoking and happiness.

Autograph opportunities with gerontology authors

Breaking the Social Security Glass Ceiling: A Proposal to Modernize Women’s Benefits (SRPP) was chaired by Carroll Estes, author of Social Policy & Aging: A Critical Perspective (textbook used in my Aging & Social Policy class).  Symposium was based on a report co-authored by Estes at http://www.iwpr.org/publications/pubs/breaking-the-social-security-glass-ceiling-a-proposal-to-modernize-womens-benefits

How to Live on When Control Fails (SRPP):  Harry (Rick) Moody, author of Aging: Concepts and Controversies (textbook used in my Aging in Multidimensional Context class) told us this was really a Humanities session.  Instead of focusing on autonomy and control, he said the issue should be on how to provide dignity.  I highly recommend subscribing to Moody's free e-newsletters at http://www.hrmoody.com/newsletters.html

SFSU professors take the stage

What Will It Take to Care for a World of Older Women? Office of Women’s Health (OWH) Senior Advisor Mary Worstell, OWH Deputy Assistant Secretary Nancy Lee and SFSU Gerontology Program Chair Darlene Yee-Melichar held listening session to obtain input on access to care, health literacy, public-private partnership and the budget.

Research Strategies to Create an Age-Friendly World One Community at a Time (SRPP): SFSU Gerontology Professor Anabel Pelham led efforts with students to have Los Altos and Los Altos Hills designated as age-friendly cities by the World Health Organization (WHO).  She highlighted the need to involve all stakeholders and to emphasize that age-friendly is “good for all generations.” 

Aging in Asia:  SFSU Social Work Professor Rashmi Gupta started this interest group. Seoul, Korea will host 20^th IAGG World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics meeting next year.  San Francisco will host IAGG in 2017 (http://www.iagg.info/news-iagg?page=1)! In the meantime, we can work to have San Francisco join the WHO Global Network of Age-Friendly Cities at  http://www.who.int/ageing/publications/Age_friendly_cities_checklist.pdf.

Today & the future

Honoring Contributions of Elaine Brody: “Women in the Middle” Revisited (BSS):  “Women in the Middle” refers to daughters, who are the main caregivers of elderly parents, caught in the middle to competing demands in their roles as mother, daughter and employee.  90-year old Brody mentioned testifying in Capitol Hill, before she retired 30 years ago, and asked why today’s gerontologists are no longer doing the same?  (Read her insights on being a "very, very old" gerontologist at http://www.geron.org/uploads/documents/AnInsider'sPerspective.pdf)

ESPO/AGHE: Exploring Post-Graduation Opportunities (HS):  listening to recent graduate Tara McMullen discuss working at Centers for Medicare and Medicaid inspired me to consider returning to the federal government to do policy work, which has such potential to make a huge impact on society.  But this seems to depend on who's in power and the prevailing view of government's role.  I previously worked at the U.S. Department of Labor under Secretary Robert Reich during the Clinton Administration’s first term (which enacted the Family Medical Leave Act, attempted health care reform and endured the federal government shutdown/Contract with America).

 

What Future for Social Security? (SRPP):  Moody (again, this time playing talk show host) with Andy Achenbaum and Larry Polivka.  Moody announced that he would be retiring from AARP and distributed copies of its publication, The Future of Social Security: 12 Proposals You Should Know About (http://www.aarp.org/work/social-security/info-05-2012/future-of-social-security-proposals.html).

Old Guys Rule ("The older I get, the better I was") t-shirts were a common sight in San Diego! 

These are just a few highlights from last week's GSA meeting.  Hope to cover more in upcoming postings so stay tuned.