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UCSF INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH & AGING   ◊   UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, SAN FRANCISCO

Training and Education Programs

The Institute for Health & Aging at the School of Nursing, University of California, San Francisco, provides comprehensive education and training in aging, health policy, and health services research for pre- and post-doctoralscholars in a variety of social science disciplines.

Over the past 10 years, IHA faculty members have mentored 118 predoctoral students and postdoctoral researchers, and 67 visiting scholars.

In addition, IHA participates in two collaborative training programs. Both programs are designed to:

• Provide and advance career opportunities for scholars in academic and applied research settings; 
• Stimulate research by offering graduate and postdoctoral scholars training opportunities and dissertation research topics on health and aging; and 
• Create opportunities through the Senior Scholars fund for older and retired community advocates and professionals to study aging issues.

The first, the Health Services Research and Health Policy Fellowship Program, a collaboration between the Institute for Health & Aging and the Institute for Health Policy Studies at UCSF, provides multidisciplinary teaching and training for postdoctoral fellows. The fellowships are funded jointly by the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The program curriculum comprises a supervised research project, a seminar series that focuses on health policy, health services, research methods, and writing, among other topics, and a career development component.

The second, a joint program of IHA, the Department of Social & Behavioral Sciences, UCSF, and the School of Public Health, UC Berkeley, provides didactic training in healthcare organization and administration, health policy, health economics, and research methods and statistics for predoctoral students. Since their inception in 1985, these fellowship programs have trained more than 30 fellows from many disciplines of health research.

Also, the Tish Sommers Senior Scholars and Joe Estes Elder Law Scholar Programs bring distinguished leaders to the UCSF campus, and provide an opportunity for intergenerational exchange between university scholars and knowledgeable community and national leaders. The Tish Sommers Senior Scholar Program honors and seeks to continue the work of Tish Sommers (1914-1985), the co-founder and president of the Older Women's League (OWL) and an activist on behalf of health insurance and pension rights for women in midlife and old age. Sponsored by the Institute for Health & Aging, recipients of the Tish Sommers Senior Scholars Award are distinguished older postdoctoral and graduate students, who are actively committed to improving the lives of older women.

The Judge Joe E. Estes Memorial Fund for Aging and the Law provides a national award for scholars or community advocates who have made outstanding contributions to the fields of aging and the law. Judge Estes was nationally known for his advocacy work on behalf of legal justice and those who are affected by policy inequities.

Past Senior Scholars

The Institute for Health & Aging acknowledges the following individuals for their contributions to research as senior scholars: 

• Joe E. Estes Elder Law Scholar:
  • Lenore Gerard, JJD
• Senior Scholars:
  • Robert M. Ball, Former Commissioner,
              Social Security Administration (under three presidents)
  • Ruth Chance
  • Aileen Hernandez
  • Maggie Kuhn, Founder, Gray Panthers
  • Helene Nemschoff
  • Laurie Shields, Co-Founder, Older Women's League
  • Tish Sommers, Co-Founder, Older Women's League

Laurie Shields Award

The Laurie Shields Award is for distinguished scholarship and research contributing to the improvement of the lives of older women. The life of Laurie Shields and her outstanding contributions to the advancement of the social and economic status of midlife and older women remain an inspiration.

This award recognizes and encourages the efforts of others committed to similar goals and objectives. Award recipients have demonstrated in their scholarship and research the capacity to make significant contributions to understanding and advancing the social and economic status of older women.

Conferences, Symposia, and Summits

UCSF Laurel Heights Campus and Conference Center

The Institute for Health & Aging shares its work with the public by publishing and disseminating research findings and providing technical assistance and public information to a variety of governmental, public, and private organizations.  In past years, the Institute has sponsored or co-sponsored a variety of conferences, summits, and workshops.  These public forums showcase specific research themes.

Public Forums

• IHA Anniversary Celebration, "Healthy and Active Aging,"
  Dr. Walter Bortz, Dare to be 100.
• "Blood Pressure and You," Cosponsored with the
  American Society on Aging
• "Cardiovascular Health: Coming together for the
  21st Century," - co-sponsored with the
  National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute
• Dorothy Pechman Rice Symposium on Public Health 1998
• Dorothy Pechman Rice Symposium 2000, "Lowering the Uninsured:
  The Difference Different Plans Make"
• Dorothy Pechman Rice Symposium on Public Health, 1998.
• Dorothy Pechman Rice Symposium 2002, "Privatization in the
  Reforms of Medicare and Social Security:
  Highway to the Future, or Dead End."
• Dorothy Pechman Rice Symposium 2005, "The Future of Health Care."
• "Critical Issues in Addiction," Cosponsored with the
  Haight-Ashbury Free Clinic
• Older Women's Health & Wellness Summit, Cosponsored with the
  UCSF Center of Excellence on Women's Health
• Medicare and Women, Cosponsored with Kaiser Family Foundation and the
  Older Women's League
• Conference on Work and Health, Cosponsored with the
  UCSF Institute for Health Policy Studies

Faculty Seminar Series

IHA faculty members and visiting scholars give monthly seminars focusing on many issues and problems of aging, health, and healthcare policy. Some are listed below.

Aging and Long-Term Care

• Appraisals of Strain and of Gain: Effects on Psychological Well-Being of
  Caregivers of Dementia Patients,
     Dinnie Chao, Ph.D.
• The Ageless Garden: Gardening With Elders,
     Cris Chater, Ph.D.
• The New Politics of Social Security in Australia,
     Fay Lomax Cook, Ph.D.
• Bridging Research & Practice: Alzheimer's Association Initiatives,
     Elizabeth Edgerly, Ph.D.
• Method for Constructing a Policy Outcome: State Legislation
  Concerning Individuals with Dementia,
     Brian Kaskie, Ph.D.
• Efforts to Reduce Medical Injuries in
  Large, Capitated Physician Organizations,
     Robert Miller, Ph.D.
• The German Long Term Care Insurance:
  Structural Constraints - New Modes of Solidarity - Unfulfilled Promises,
     Hans-Joachim von Kondratowitz, Ph.D.
• Comparing Pathways through Care for Older People
  in Germany, the UK and US,
     Michaela Schunk, Ph.D.
• Negotiations & Interactions: A Typology for
  Addressing Health Care Disputes,
     Joanna Weinberg, Ph.D.
• Multiple Realities of Work & Care in an "Alzheimer's" Group Home,
     Chris Wellin, Ph.D.
• Current Status of Social Security and Medicare, A National Perspective,
     Max Richtman, Ph.D.
• When is a Gift Really a Gift? Human Gamete Donation in Australia,
     Pia Broderick, Ph.D.

Disability

• Women, Caring Work, and Public Policy: The Case of Disability Reform,
     Rannveig Traustadottir, Ph.D.

Healthy & Active Aging

• The Use of NUD.IST in a Qualitative Study on Facilitators and
  Barriers to Physical Activity in Adults 75 and Older,
     Melanie Grossman, Ph.D.
• Geographic Variation of Cardiovascular Disease Burden
  in California,
     Chi Kao, Ph.D.
• Effectiveness of CHAMPS: A Physical Activity
  Promotion Program for Seniors,
     Anita Stewart, Ph.D.
• Successful Aging: Only Physical?
     William Strawbridge, Ph.D.

Health & Diverse Communities

• Dimensions of Quality of Care: African American Perspectives,
     Marie Fongwa, Ph.D.
• Aging and Cultural Differences in Four Ethnic Groups:
  Part I, Qualitative Methods And Analysis,
     Gay Becker, Ph.D.
• An Overview of the Family Health Outcomes Project,
     Teddy Milder, Ph.D.

Health Economics

• The Cost of Firearm Injuries in California,
     Wendy Max, Ph.D., and Martha Michel
• The Health Impacts of the California Labor Market:
  A Report on the California Work And Health Survey,
     Ed Yelin, Ph.D.
• Devolution Toolkit Overview,
     Anne Hayes Egan

Substance Abuse

• Finding the Truth: The Vertical Multidisciplinary Team Approach
  to Qualitative Research,
     Sarah Calhoun
• Haight Asbury Free Clinics Story,
     David Smith, M.D.

Women's Health

• Breast Cancer Risks: Lesbian & Heterosexual Women,
     Suzanne Dibble, RN, DNSc.
• Menopause, Osteoporosis & Aging: A cross-cultural Inquiry,
     Yewoubdar Beyene, Ph.D.
• Sexual Assault History & Health:
  Evidence From 7 General Population Studies,
     Jacqueline Golding, Ph.D.
• Institutional Ethnography,
     Dorothy Smith

UCSF INSTITUTE FOR HEALTH & AGING  ◊  SCHOOL OF NURSING  ◊  University of California, San Francisco
3333 California St., #LHts-340, San Francisco, CA   94143-0646
More information, contact:  mariechristine.yue@ucsf.edu
This page is:  http://sbs.ucsf.edu/iha/educ.htm
Last revised:  Apr. 2008
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