Harvey A. Friedman Center for Aging

Annual Friedman Lecture

Creating Aging-Friendly Communities

Friday, May 3, 2013 | 8:30 am to noon
Eric P. Newman Education Center, Washington University Medical Campus
Event flyer

Keynote Speaker: Andrew Scharlach, PhD

Dr. Scharlach is the Eugene and Rose Kleiner Professor of Aging and Director of the Center for the Advanced Study of Aging Services at the University of California at Berkeley. His work focuses on adults and their families, particularly with regard to long-term care services, work and family responsibilities, and aging-friendly communities. He has conducted extensive research and evaluation of community aging initiatives, particularly the Village model. Dr. Scharlach is the principal investigator of a series of research projects aimed at increasing understanding of Village model programs and their potential for helping older adults age in place.

Panelists

Karen Berry-Elbert, St. Louis Naturally Occurring Retirement Community (NORC)
Arthur Culbert, StL Village-Central West End
Camille Greenwald, City of Richmond Heights   

Poster Session

Washington University faculty, staff, and students shared their work in aging at this year’s Friedman Lecture.

Friedman and Kopolow Awards

These annual awards, presented each year at the Friedman Lecture, recognize individuals for offering outstanding care and services for older adults. More details

This year's award winners are:

2013 Kopolow Award Winner
Tammie L. S. Benzinger
Dr. Benzinger is assistant professor of radiology and neurological surgery in the School of Medicine at Washington University. She received her PhD and MD from the University of Chicago in 2000, where her research focused on the structure of beta-amyloid, the peptide which aggregates in the brain in Alzheimer’s disease. She then completed a residency and fellowship in radiology and neuroradiology at the Mallinckrodt Institute of Radiology (MIR) at Washington University.
She currently leads the Neuroimaging Core for the Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center, the Dominantly Inherited Alzheimer Network (DIAN), and DIAN Trials Unit. She has served as the director of Neuromagnetic Resonance Imaging at the MIR since 2006, with a focus of bringing advanced imaging techniques into clinical practice.

2013 Friedman Award Winners
Rebecca I. Fierberg
Ms. Fierberg is a social worker for the Memory and Aging Project within the Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center. She acts as an educational, supportive, and counseling resource for all research participants and their families, and provides services to community members outside the study who seek information and support about Alzheimer’s disease. She also facilitates a caregiver support group at the Alzheimer’s Association and is a member of their Speaker’s Bureau.
In her forties, Ms. Fierberg made a career change—moving from small business owner to full-time student at the Brown School at Washington University. While a student, she was honored with the Clara Louis Meyers Award for Outstanding Practicum Student. Her academic and practicum work solidified her passion to serve the older adult population. Her social work skills and innate creativity are closely intertwined—she has been known to introduce how-to-knit lessons within her support groups.

Deborah Dalin Guyer
Ms. Guyer is executive director of the Greater St. Louis Chapter of the American Parkinson Disease Association (APDA), serving the state of Missouri and southern Illinois. She is coordinator of the APDA Information and Referral Center at Washington University School of Medicine, with offices in the neuroclinical research unit, and at the Parkinson Community Resource Center in Chesterfield. Prior to joining the APDA in 2007, Ms. Guyer worked as a speech-language pathologist in a hospital setting for 30 years.
Ms. Guyer has also served on the APDA Board of Directors, chairing the Patient Needs and Services committee, planning health fairs and caregiver workshops. When it was proposed to offer a support group for adult children of parents with Parkinson’s disease, she became the facilitator of this group and still serves in this role today. She has spent her entire career, both as a hospital speech pathologist and through her involvement with the APDA, working with older adults.

Past Friedman Lectures

April 30, 2012: "The Aging Mind: Realities and Myths" Learn more
May 24, 2011: "Friedman Center for Aging Research: Selected Updates"
View Agenda
May 25, 2010: "Productive Aging: Cross-Cultural Perspectives from China and the US" View Agenda
April 21, 2009: "In the Words of the Artist: The Influence of Age on Creativity and Expression" View Agenda
May 13, 2008: "Are we Licensed for Life?: Transportation and Driving Issues in an Aging Society" View Agenda