Sherry Cummings
President
scumming@utk.edu

The University of Tennessee, Knoxville
College of Social Work
http://www.csw.utk.edu

Sherry M. Cummings, Ph.D., is Associate Dean and Associate Professor in the College of Social Work at the University of Tennessee. She is the current president of Association for Gerontological Education in Social Work (AGE-SW). Dr. Cummings was a John A. Hartford Gerontological Faculty Scholar, 2001-2003. Dr. Cummings’ research focuses on aging and mental health, especially issues related to depression among older adults in diverse settings including assisted living and the community, and on older adults with severe mental illness. Additionally, her research explores the impact of such mental health issues on familial caregivers. Her research has appeared in numerous peer-reviewed journals in the social work, gerontological and mental health arenas. Her publications include Cummings, S. M & Galambos, C. (Eds.). (2004). Diversity and aging in the social environment. New York: Haworth Press and Cummings, S. C. & Kropf, N. P. Handbook of Psychosocial Interventions with Older Adults: Evidence-Based Approaches, which will be published by Haworth Press in April 2008.

Sara Sanders
Vice President
Sara-sanders@uiowa.edu

University of Iowa
http://www.uiowa.edu/~socialwk/

Dr. Sara Sanders is an assistant professor at the University of Iowa, School of Social Work. She obtained her Bachelor of Social Work from St. Olaf College in 1994, Master of Social Work degree from the George Warren Brown School of Social Work at Washington University in 1995, and her Ph.D from the University of Maryland in 2002. Her research interests pertain to grief and loss reactions in caregivers of individuals with Alzheimer's disease, male caregiver issues, and the impact of client suicide on social workers. Clinically, Dr. Sanders has worked as a hospice social worker and a chapter of the Alzheimer's Association.

Marla Berg-Weger
Past President; BPD Liaison; Publications Committee
bergwm@slu.edu

St. Louis University
http://www.slu.edu/x7041.xml

Marla Berg-Weger, Ph.D., LCSW, is the Senior Associate Provost for Academic Affairs at Saint Louis University and a Professor in the School of Social Work and additionally is currently serving as the Interim Dean of the College of Public Service. Her scholarly work has focused on aging, family caregiving and social work practice. She has written two books and nearly thirty book chapters and journal articles in these areas. For the past five years, she has been a member of an interprofessional team focused on research and education in the area of older adults and driving. In addition to working as a social work scholar and educator, Dr. Berg-Weger has been a social worker for over twenty-five years and worked in the areas of aging services, medical social work, domestic violence treatment and mental health services. She is the recent president of the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work, a national organization of social work faculty and students committed to educating social workers on aging-related issues.

Angela Curl
Member At-Large

University of Missouri

Angela L. Curl, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Missouri (MU). She is currently a Hartford Faculty Scholar (2008-2010) and was previously a Hartford Doctoral Fellow (2004-2006). Angela completed her BSW at Taylor University, her MSW at the University of Alabama, and her Ph.D. in Social Welfare at Case Western Reserve University. Her research focuses on the work and retirement of older married couples, and its impact on physical health for both spouses. Angela teaches an international aging policy course, as well as social work practice and research courses. She has been a member of AGESW since 2001.

Charissa Eaton
Student Representative
2008-2010

University of Minnesota

Zvi D. Gellis
Member At-Large

Zvi D. Gellis was most recently at the University of Albany, where he served as Director of the Center for Mental Health and Aging. In 2002, he was selected as a Hartford Foundation Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar. He is a Research Fellow of the National Institute on Aging. In 2005, he was awarded a National Institute of Mental Health, 5-Year research grant to develop and evaluate mental health screening and cognitive behavioral treatment services for depressed and medically ill older home care patients. As an established gerontologist, Dr. Gellis has over 18 years of clinical and management experience in community mental health programs. His current research interests are in depression and anxiety assessment, and treatment for community-dwelling older adults. He provides leadership to the New York State Evidence-Based Mental Health Training program. Dr. Gellis has authored numerous journal articles and book chapters and has delivered papers and workshops at over 170 conferences nationally and internationally.

Teri Knutson Kennedy
Member At-Large
terikennedy@asu.edu

Arizona State University

Teri Kennedy, PhD, MSW, has assisted elders in social service, health and psychiatric settings for nearly 20 years. She serves as social work faculty with the Arizona State University (ASU) and Arizona Geriatric Education Center, the University of Arizona (U of A); Faculty Associate with the Graduate Program in Gerontology, College of Medicine, U of A; Faculty and Visiting Scholar, The John A. Hartford Center of Geriatric Nursing Excellence, College of Nursing and Healthcare Innovation, ASU; and Research Affiliate with the Southwest Interdisciplinary Research Consortium, ASU. Her dissertation, Geriatric Education Centers: Academic Capitalism and the Knowledge/Learning Regime, was just published as a monograph by VDM Verlag. She conducts research at the intersection of gerontology and economics and is a singer/songwriter living in Arizona.

Carmen Morano
Past Vice President
cmorano@hunter.cuny.edu

Hunter College
http://www.hunter.cuny.edu/socwork/

Kyaien OQuinn
Student Representative

University of Pittsburgh

Joe Pickard
Member at Large; Website Coordinator
pickardj@umsl.edu

University of Missouri-Saint Louis
http://www.umsl.edu/~socialwk/

Joe Pickard, PhD, LCSW is an Assistant Professor who completed his Ph.D. at Washington University in Saint Louis and received his MSW from SIU-Carbondale. Joe is an LCSW and has worked with older adults, as a school social worker, and with substance abusing adults. His research interests include aging and mental health, help seeking patterns of older adults, aging in place, religiosity/spirituality and aging, and counseling services that clergy provide to older adults. Joe was a Hartford Doctoral Fellow while at Washington University in Saint Louis, and he is the primary investigator (PI) on a research project titled An Examination of Older Adults' Help Seeking from Clergy in Saint Louis County. Joe teaches practice courses, human behavior, and a course on social work practice with aging clients. Joe is happy to be a member of the School of Social Work faculty, and he states that he really enjoys the UM-Saint Louis students.

Philip Rozario
Member-at-large; E-Newsletter Editor; Liaison to Student Group
rozario@adelphi.edu

Adelphi University
http://socialwork.adelphi.edu/

Tracey Schroepfer
Member-at-large; Membership Coordinator
tschroepfer@wisc.edu

University of Wisconsin-Madison
http://socwork.wisc.edu/

Dr. Schroepfer is an assistant professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s School of Social Work and is affiliated with the University’s Institute on Aging, Comprehensive Cancer Center, Center on Patient Partnerships, and Department of Population Health Sciences. She is a recipient of the Hartford Geriatric Social Work Faculty Scholar Award, a national award that provides support for one of her current research projects: the development of an instrument to assess the psychosocial and spiritual needs of terminally ill elders.

Dr. Schroepfer is also the Principal Investigator on Partners Building Bridges: Reducing Cancer Health Disparities in Wisconsin, a research project that seeks to assess the access to, and the quality of, cancer care in nine medically underserved Wisconsin communities. Using a newly developed research model, community leaders and the research team use the assessment information to set priorities concerning cancer issues, and develop culturally specific interventions, which are then implemented and tested with the goal of reducing the higher burden of cancer deaths in these communities.

In addition being on the AGESW Board, Dr. Schroepfer is member of the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine, the American Geriatrics Society, the Association for Death Education and Counseling, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education, the Gerontological Society of America, the National Association for Social Workers, and the Society for Social Work and Research. She has authored or co-authored 14 journal articles and 2 book chapters.

Tiffany Washington
Student Representative
2009-2011

University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Tiffany Washington, MSW, is a doctoral student at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Social Work. Her research area is health and aging informed by her practice background in Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) and Home Health. Specifically, Tiffany is interested in chronic disease self-management among older adults. Currently, she is a research assistant for the Center for Aging Research and Educational Services (CARES) and is a 2008 Hartford Pre-Dissertation Awardee (Cohort IV). Tiffany serves as a member of the Durham County Nursing Home Advisory Committee and actively participates in various community service projects aimed to improve the lives of older persons and persons with CKD.