A Symposium to Counter Social Isolation and Loneliness | April 7-9, 2022
Learn more about the 2022 Symposium Speakers. Topics will focus on the effects of and solutions to social isolation and loneliness which existed before and were amplified by the pandemic.
KEYNOTE
Professor of Geriatrics
University of California, San Francisco (UCSF)
CARLA M. PERISSINOTTO, M.D., M.H.S., Ph.D.
Professor of Geriatrics, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco,
Dr. Perissinotto is board certified in internal medicine, geriatrics, and palliative medicine. She served as the associate chief for geriatrics clinical programs at UCSF from 2017 to 2021. She has gained national and international recognition for her research on the effects of loneliness on the health of older adults. Her research and advocacy have focused on integration of loneliness assessments in health care, and evaluation and implementation of community-based programs focused on ameliorating loneliness and isolation in adults.
Dr. Perissinotto was an advisor to the film, ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE.
PREMIER SCREENING
ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE, featured film
Stu Maddux, Director
ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE featured film
Stu Maddux is an award-winning producer and director of non-fiction media with international credits including Pluto TV, Here TV, PBS, Showtime, TLC, VH1, Spike, Logo, CMT, and BBC.
His work has been featured in The New York Times, The Atlantic, VICE, and NPR’s Morning Edition and exhibited at film festivals around the world.
His honors include seven regional Emmy Awards. as well as awards from film festivals on five continents.
Maddux is an outspoken activist for the LGBTQ aging and LGBTQ history movements. He has spoken at national conferences including the Out & Equal, Creating Change, the American Psychological Association, and the American Society on Aging.
He is a graduate of the University of Missouri School of Journalism.
PREMIER SCREENING
ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE, featured film
Joseph Applebaum, Producer
ALL THE LONELY PEOPLE featured film
Joseph Applebaum is a television broadcast producer and documentary filmmaker with over 30 years of experience in the national entertainment industry covering all formats of nonfiction media.
Clients have included NBC, CBS, and FOX networks, Disney, Merv Griffin Entertainment, Comedy Central, MTV, LOGO, BET Entertainment, FX Network, Lifetime Entertainment, Pluto TV, Here TV, as well as many independent production companies. He is an outspoken activist for the environment and animal welfare and is engaged in the local community to promote change.
Since 2010 he has focused on creating independent documentary films to promote social awareness and change through their production company, The Clowder Group. Applebaum is a graduate of the University of Southern California and a native of Mill Valley, California.
Sue Kelley, B.A. Psychology, M.S.W.
Principal consultant based in Milwaukee, WI. Sue provides consulting services to human service and governmental agencies in areas of strategic planning, program planning, proposal writing, project management and group facilitation. Clients include the Milwaukee County Department on Aging, the Alzheimer's Association of Southeastern WI, Interfaith Older Adult Programs and many others. Areas of concentration include older adult issues, neighborhood partnerships, project management, group facilitation and participatory planning.
TOM HLAVACEK, M.S.
Hlavacek served for thirteen years as Executive Director of the Alzheimer’s Association of Southeastern WI, where he oversaw a staff of 29 in an eleven-county region. He convened and chaired the Alzheimer’s Challenging Behaviors Task Force which produced two reports, Handcuffed and We All Hold the Keys, and led to his testimony before the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging, and State legislation. His previous work includes directing the Milwaukee Office of Disability Rights Wisconsin where he co-founded the Mental Health Task Force. He is a past recipient of the Joseph P. Kennedy, Jr. Foundation Public Policy Fellowship and served as a Disability Fellow in the United State Senate. Tom holds a Master of Science degree in Rehabilitation Counseling from the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee.
Executive Director
Older Adult Technical Services/Senior Planet
THOMAS KAMBER, Ph.D.
Dr. Kamber is the founder and executive director of Older Adults Technology Services (OATS) and Senior Planet. He is a leading expert on aging and technology and is regularly featured in national media. Under his leadership, OATS and Senior Planet have developed award-winning programs for older adults across America and are now charitable affiliates of AARP. He has taught courses on technology, urban studies, and philanthropy at Columbia University, is widely published in professional and academic journals, and has presented his work on five continents. He is also a co-founder of the Afro-Latin Jazz Alliance (which has won multiple Grammy awards) and serves on several nonprofit boards of directors and public commissions.
Associate Director
National Council on Aging, Center for Healthy Aging
DIANNE STONE
Associate Director, National Council on Aging
Dianne Stone has more than 20 years of experience with senior centers and aging issues primarily as the Director of the Newington Senior and Disabled Center in Newington, Connecticut. Ms. Stone has also worked, volunteered and held leadership positions with a variety of organizations in Connecticut including Connecticut AgeWell Collaborative, the ADA Coalition of Connecticut, Connecticut Medicaid Oversight Council and the Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity.
She has served on several legislative task forces and has held leadership positions with the National Institute of Senior Centers (NISC). Ms. Stone joined NCOA in January 2022 as the Associate Director of Network Development and Engagement where, as a member of the Center for Healthy Aging, she is focused on supporting senior centers throughout the country through the Administration on Community Living funded Modernizing Senior Centers Resource Center and NISC.
Assistant Professor, College of Social Work
University of Utah
CHARLES PITRE HOY-ELLIS, , Ph.D., M.S.W., L.C.S.W.
Assistant Professor at the University of Utah, College of Social Work
Charles Pitre Hoy-Ellis, PhD, MSW, LCSW, is an Assistant Professor at the University of Utah, College of Social Work. He received his MSW in Clinical/Contextual Practice, and PhD in Social Welfare from the University of Washington, Seattle. Dr. Hoy-Ellis teaches Diversity, Social Justice, and Ethical Reflexive Social Work Practice and Aging Advanced Practice for MSW students.
Dr. Hoy-Ellis’ scholarship focuses on the mental health and well-being of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) people, especially midlife and older adults. He has nearly 20 years’ direct practice experience as a licensed clinical social worker (LCSW) providing services to the LGBTQ community. Dr. Hoy-Ellis was a member of the research team of the Caring and Aging with Pride (CAP) project, the first of its kind federally funded (National Institutes of Health / National Institute on Aging) national study that began to systematically examine the health and well-being of LGBTQ midlife and older adults. The initial CAP project was so successful that it is now an ongoing longitudinal study that continues to explore the health and well-being of LGBTQ midlife and older adults over time – Aging with Pride: National Health, Aging, Sexuality, and Gender Study (NHAS) that Dr. Hoy-Ellis continues to collaborate on.
TimeSlips Tele-Stories Program Manager and Master Trainer
SAM GOODRICH
TimeSlips Tele-Stories Program Manager and Master Trainer
Goodrich oversees several TimeSlips projects including Tele-Stories, connecting with under-connected elders via phone, and other projects in which seniors living with dementia are creatively engaged for better health outcomes. With a performance background, time spent as a professional caregiver, and a personal connection to caregiving for someone with memory loss, she hopes to bring light to the benefits that creativity can have on a person with memory loss, as well as the relief it can bring to loved ones and care partners.
Dementia Navigator
Iona Senior Services, Washington, DC.
E.A. CASEY, L.G.S.W., M.P.Aff.
E.A. Casey – who goes by Casey and uses they/them pronouns – is a clinical social worker and community-based Dementia Navigator, supporting clients and families in Washington, DC. Casey also holds a Master of Public Affairs and was a long-time strategic advisor to AARP Foundation’s social connectedness initiatives. Before making the switch in 2021 to social work, Casey led the development and implementation of national strategies and programs to combat isolation and loneliness among vulnerable older adults. As a Dementia Navigator at a community aging services provider, Casey facilitates support groups and Club Memory sessions and provides case management services and other support to people experiencing dementia and their caregivers.
Professor of Psychology
College of the Holy Cross
MARK FREEMAN, PH.D
Dr. Freeman is the Distinguished Professor of Ethics and Society in the Department of Psychology at the College of the Holy Cross, Worchester, MA where he has taught since 1986. His writings include Rewriting the Self: History, Memory, Narrative (Routledge, 1993); Finding the Muse: A Sociopsychological Inquiry into the Conditions of Artistic Creativity (Cambridge, 1994); Hindsight: The Promise and Peril of Looking Backward (Oxford, 2010); The Priority of the Other: Thinking and Living Beyond the Self (Oxford, 2014); and Do I Look at You with Love? Reimagining the Story of Dementia (Brill | Sense, 2021). Winner of 2010 Theodore R. Sarbin Award in the Society for Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology as well as 2021 Joseph B. Gittler Award from American Psychological Foundation, Dr. Freeman is a Fellow in the American Psychological Association and also serves as Editor for the Oxford University Press book series “Explorations in Narrative Psychology.”
Zen Hospice Project and Metta Institute
San Francisco, CA
FRANK OSTASEKI
Frank Ostaseski is an internationally respected Buddhist teacher and visionary cofounder of the Zen Hospice Project, and founder of the Metta Institute. He has lectured at Harvard Medical School, the Mayo Clinic, leading corporations like Google and Apple Inc. and teaches at major spiritual centers around the globe. Frank is the 2018 recipient of the prestigious Humanities Award from the American Academy of Hospice and Palliative Medicine.
Frank has accompanied over 1,000 people through the dying process and trained thousands of healthcare clinicians and family caregivers around the world. His groundbreaking work has been featured on the Bill Moyers PBS series On Our Own Terms, highlighted on The Oprah Winfrey Show and honored by H.H., the Dalai Lama. He is the author of The Five Invitations: Discovering What Death Can Teach Us About Living Fully
