AGEING BETTER WITH ICTs

“Meet all the subject matter experts that are available to serve as your mentor for the Aging Better With ICTs Hackathon – exciting, varied backgrounds, and full of guidance.”

Mentor sessions will take place on 30 March, 6 April, and 7 April. All sessions are from 09:00 AM - 10:30 AM EDT

Please submit the following information and we will assign you a mentor and a date and time to meet with them during one of the sessions: https://forms.gle/QBBwHx6q42jZn2Z98

Mary J. Cronin, Ph.D. is a Research Professor at the Carroll School of Management, Boston College, President of 4Q Catalyst. LLC (www.4qcatalyst.com), and Co-Founder of Founders Over 55, a collegial community of company founders in our encore careers. Dr. Cronin is currently researching, speaking, and publishing on entrepreneurial engagement and social innovation among older adults, in the context of the future of work.  She serves on the Advisory Board of BeyondWork2020 (https://www.beyondwork2020.com/) a program exploring the transformation of work in the 21st century, and will chair a panel at the BeyondWork2020 conference in Bonn, Germany on October 21, 2020 hosted by German Federal Ministry of Education and Research.   Dr. Cronin’s latest book, Starting UP Over 50: Building a Resilient and Profitable Small Business presents inspirational stories of the challenges, successes, and lessons learned by entrepreneurs who started their companies over the age of 50, together with advice from experts in business formation, finance, marketing, social media, sales, and human resources.    Dr. Cronin has already authored 11 books on digital strategy, innovation, and corporate sustainability including the international best sellers Doing Business on the Internet (1994), Smart Products, Smarter Services (2010), and Managing for Social Impact: Innovations in Responsible Enterprise (2018).  She is a board member of the Encore Boston Network and The Boston Authors Club, and a member of the Executive Committee Founders Over Fifty-Five.

Sara is the co-founder and COO at Voiceitt, a digital health startup that has developed a unique speech recognition technology to help people with disabilities live more independently. Sara's academic background and her growing career in impactful technologies have been driven by her passion for combining high-ambition entrepreneurship with positive social impact. Having grown up in South Florida, she moved to Israel after spending five years in Asia - at a biotechnology startup in Hong Kong; and in various corporate and start-up environments in Seoul, South Korea, where she also completed a Global MBA. Sara holds an Economics degree from Barnard College at Columbia Universirty in New York City, where she co-founded the Columbia Chapter of Net Impact, the international nonprofit which strives to orient business principles toward sustainable social goals. Passionate about socially responsible business, high-ambition entrepreneurship, innovations in medical tech and accessibility technologies, and women's business leadership anywhere in the world. Sara now leads Voiceitt's business development, grant writing, and strategic partnerships. She lives in between New York and Tel Aviv.

Keren is the Creator of TheGerontechnologist.com, a website that covers the global age tech ecosystem. In 2019, she was named one of the most influential people in aging by Next Avenue. Keren is a public speaker and an advisor for age tech startups, investors in the longevity economy, care providers and organizations who work on innovation in aging. Keren was the first employee at Intuition Robotics, the startup behind ElliQ, the world’s first social robot designed with and for older adults, and co-founder & VP of Product at Sensi.Ai, a startup that developed the first and only audio-AI solution for remote care monitoring. Keren holds an M.A. in Gerontology and B.Sc. in Life Sciences.

S. Jay Olshansky received his Ph.D. in Sociology at the University of Chicago in 1984. He is currently a Professor in the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago, Research Associate at the Center on Aging at the University of Chicago and at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, and Chief Scientist at Lapetus Solutions, Inc. The focus of his research to date has been on estimates of the upper limits to human longevity, exploring the health and public policy implications associated with individual and population aging, forecasts of the size, survival, and age structure of the population, pursuit of the scientific means to slow aging in people (The Longevity Dividend), and global implications of the re-emergence of infectious and parasitic diseases. Dr. Olshansky is on the Board of Directors of the American Federation of Aging Research; he is the first author of The Quest for Immortality: Science at the Frontiers of Aging (Norton, 2001) and A Measured Breath of Life (2013); and co-edited Aging: The Longevity Dividend (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Press, 2015). In 2016, Dr. Olshansky was honored with the Donald P. Kent Award from the Gerontological Society of America, the Irving S. Wright Award from the American Federation for Aging Research, and he was named one of Next Street’s Influencer in Aging.

Chad Brough has worked in healthcare for more than 27 years. His leadership experience began in community hospitals and has included work in large health systems and academic medical centers. Today, Chad is the Vice President of Healthcare Transformation at Home Instead Senior Care, the world’s largest home care company headquartered in Omaha. Chad graduated from Hanover College with a degree in Business Administration. In 1999, he completed an MBA at Indiana University.

From 2005-2006, Brough served on the Malcolm Baldrige Board of Examiners. The Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award is the highest level of national recognition for performance excellence that a U.S. organization can receive. Brough is a native of Salem, IN. Since 2016, Brough has resided in Omaha, NE. Since moving to Omaha, Brough has served on the Maha Music Festival Board of Directors and founded F3Omaha, a men’s fitness group focused on invigorating community leadership.

Prof. Ian Philp is the Professor of Global Ageing at the University of Stirling, UK, the Founder of Age Care Technologies which develops and licenses use of tools for care-planning and training in person- centred care for older people, an Associate of GE Health Partners and a Consultant to the World Health Organisation. Ian holds a Doctorate in Medicine from the University of Edinburgh and was a practicing physician for 35 years in the UK National Health Service. As Professor of Health Care for Older People at the University of Sheffield, he led teams which won the UK hospital team of the year in the care of older people and the Queen’s Anniversary Prize for Higher Education for research into improving the quality of life of older people.

Ian has ten years’ experience as an Executive Medical Director of hospital and community services and from 2000-8 he was the National Clinical Director for Older People in England. His media contributions include including presenting the ITV programme “100 Years Younger In 21 days” and contributing to the ITV documentary “Only the Lonely” and the BBC programmes “Are You Younger Than You Think?”, “How to Live Longer” and “The Young Ones”. Ian was also awarded a CBE in the Queen’s birthday honours in 2009 in recognition of his work to improve the lives of older people.

Ramesh Advani is a Senior Finance and Operations Executive with experience in the non-profit, public and private sectors including financial services, high tech medical and materials manufacturing industries. As former Director, Federal Grants Management, he was responsible for operational and financial oversight of $3+ billion in grants received by Massachusetts. As a former VP of Finance with Fidelity Investments, he was instrumental in the start-up of Fidelity’s India operations. R.A. has also held senior positions in the medical diagnostics manufacturing industry with Corning, Chiron, Novartis, and Bayer. His background is primarily in technology and social change with extensive experience in large program and project management. He became Massachusetts’ first Indian American Selectman from 2003-2009. He was involved with a local nonprofit as a fellow and then as their CFO helping the senior leadership team assess the financial and operational infrastructure to position their 3-year growth strategy. He is also involved on a pro bono basis with SCORE Boston and Mass Challenge as a mentor and counselor to technology entrepreneurs focused on social impact, clean tech and other causes. He is also a Board member and chair of the DEI (Diversity, Equity & Inclusion) committee of Hearth, a Boston nonprofit dedicated to ending elder homelessness and a Board member of Barakat Bundle, a nonprofit focused on preventable infant and maternal mortality in South Asia. A resident of Boston, he holds a master’s in international business from the University of South Carolina and a bachelor’s degree in Electrical Engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay.

Programme on Ageing Unit at the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs in New York. She serves on the Secretariat of the General Assembly's Open-ended Working Group on Ageing and is a member of the Steering Committee of the Titchfield City Group on Ageing-related Statistics and Age-disaggregated Data. Amal joined the United Nations in 2001, working in the areas of social policy, sustainable development, and demography, and served on the Secretariats of the World Summit on Sustainable Development (2002) and the High-level Meeting on Youth (2011). She held positions in Beirut and New York. Before joining the United Nations, Amal lectured and taught on analysis of social and demographic data.

Roxanna Widmer-Iliescu has been working in the Development Sector of the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) for over 20 years, primarily in the area of digital inclusion. Roxana has extensive experience and expertise in contributing to achieve inclusiveness in the digital era for all people, including those with specific needs. As Senior Programme Officer in charge of digital inclusion , Roxana promotes ICT accessibility as a fundamental enabler of the inclusion and empowerment of all people regardless of their gender, age, ability, or location. In her work she applies a holistic approach in the implementation of digital inclusion. In her capacity, she advices ITU Members in their efforts to create inclusive digital ecosystem in their respective countries and regions, as well as supports them in implementing policies and strategies to ensure a full and effective participation of all people in the digital society and the digital economy. In doing so, the aim is to ensure that future smart societies are fully accessible to everyone and benefit all people equally to guarantee that no one is left behind in the digital age. Roxana holds master’s degrees in International Law and in Strategic Management of Telecommunications.

Earl M. (Duke) Collier, Jr. Mr. Collier has spent more than 40 years in the health care field, working on innovation in both products and services. In biotechnology, he served as the Chief Executive Officer of 480 Biomedical and the executive chairman of Arsenal Medical, Inc. and, from 1998 to 2010, as Executive Vice President at Genzyme Corporation, a biotechnology company in Cambridge, MA.   Earlier in his career, Mr. Collier was a Partner at Washington, DC based Hogan and Hartson (now Hogan, Lovells).  While there he helped in the development of hospice care as a Medicare and Medicaid benefit, and assisted his client, Beth Abraham Hospital in New York City, develop one of the first PACE programs.  Until 2019, Duke chaired the Board of Trustees of Newton-Wellesley Hospital, served on the board of Mass General Brigham HealthCare System, and is Chair, Emeritus, of the Innovation Growth Board of Mass General Brigham. Mr. Collier earned a Bachelor of Arts degree at Yale University and received a law degree from the University of Virginia Law School. Duke also was a 2018 Fellow of Harvard’s Advanced Leadership Initiative, where he studied emerging models of care for patients and families dealing with serious chronic illness.

Dr. Vera Maljkovic is a Principal Research Scientist at Eli Lilly. She is an experimental psychologist/cognitive neuroscientist, working in Digital Health to assess and help implement new measurements of cognition and behavior across therapeutic areas. In Alzheimer’s disease, she works on both active and passive testing methods. Dr. Maljkovic began her research career in academia--at the University of Chicago she worked on visual perception and memory in humans. She got her AB and PhD from Harvard.

Lisa Gurgone, Executive Director of Mass Home Care, is a seasoned advocate and speaker with an extensive knowledge of elder services, the direct care workforce and home care network, and health care systems in Massachusetts. Mass Home Care serves as the lead advocate for initiatives to strengthen and support the Massachusetts home and community based care network. Ms. Gurgone is responsible for overseeing the administration and strategic plan of the trade association representing the Commonwealth’s network of the 28 Aging Services Access Points (ASAP) and Area Agencies on Aging (AAA). Ms. Gurgone works in direct partnership with the Executive Office of Elder Affairs and the Executive Office of Health and Human Services to implement standards, policies, and contract requirements for the delivery of long-term care services and supports that enable individuals to reside in community-based settings. Throughout her career, Ms. Gurgone has worked to foster coalitions and partnerships with the stakeholder community in order to strengthen services and supports offered to older adults throughout the Commonwealth. Prior to joining Mass Home Care, Ms. Gurgone served as the Executive Director of the Home Care Aide Council for over 15 years. She also worked as a Legislative Aide within the Massachusetts Legislature, served as a Health Research Assistant for the Massachusetts Division of Health Care Finance and Policy, and was a Mediator and Internship Coordinator for the Office of Massachusetts Attorney General Scott Harshbarger. Ms. Gurgone completed her graduate studies at UMASS Boston, earning both a graduate certificate in Women in Politics and Public Policy in 2000 and a Master of Science in Public Affairs in 2002. She earned her Bachelor of Science in Human Services from Lesley University in 1996.

Robin Lipson is the Deputy Secretary of the Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA). In her role she helps the agency achieve its mission to promote the independence, empowerment and well-being of older adults, individuals with disabilities, and their caregivers. With projections over the next 15 years that 1 in 5 Massachusetts residents will be over the age of 65, Ms. Lipson works on key initiatives to support what people want most---to age with dignity in their community. She has been the lead staff person supporting Governor Charlie Baker’s Council to Address Aging in Massachusetts and led the effort that resulted in MA becoming the 2 nd state in the nation to commit to being an age-friendly state. She serves on the Executive Committee of the Massachusetts Healthy Aging Collaborative, the backbone organization supporting much of the age and dementia friendly work at the local level. She has been a senior leader at EOEA since 2015, serving as Acting Secretary for the agency from January to June 2019. Prior to that she served as Chief of Staff and Chief Strategy Officer. During the current State of Emergency, Robin has served as the COVID19 Incident Commander for EOEA, coordinating the agency’s situational awareness and leading the leadership team and network response to the pandemic. Robin is a seasoned healthcare executive with 40 years’ experience working extensively at the intersection of healthcare strategy, policy and implementation. She has held leadership roles in the public, not-for-profit, and private sectors, including Deputy Director of the Massachusetts Medicaid Program, and later becoming the first-ever Vice President of Strategic Planning for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of MA. In addition, Ms. Lipson has worked as Managing Director at SBV Consulting (a subsidiary of a cutting edge eldercare company), Vice President for Partnership Development at Rise Health and as an Executive-in-Residence at AVIA, an innovation accelerator focused on helping providers deliver better care at greater value and lower cost. She has also applied her experience as a private consultant for health care and other not-for-profit organizations on their strategic, planning, organizational, and business development needs. She worked with the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation on Roadmap to Coverage, a report widely recognized as an early catalyst for health reform and passage of Massachusetts’ first-in-the-nation health care reform law.

Robin has a BA from Connecticut College and a MBA in Health Care Management from Boston University.

Kathryn Downes is the Policy Director of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA). In her role, she helps the agency achieve its mission to promote the independence, empowerment and well-being of older adults and their caregivers. With projections over the next 15 years that 1 in 5 Massachusetts residents will be over the age of 65, Ms. Downes works on strategic efforts that help people age in community with dignity, fulfillment, and grace. Ms. Downes facilitates many cross-sector and large-scale initiatives including the Governor’s Council to Address Aging in Massachusetts and the Age-Friendly Massachusetts Action Plan. Specifically, she drives implementation of key policy areas, such as social isolation and loneliness, family caregiver support, and technology and innovation. Ms. Downes is instrumental to supporting the Commonwealth’s age- and dementia-friendly movement by working with partners at the state, regional, and local levels across various domains (e.g., transportation, housing, economic security) and sectors (e.g., business community, technology entrepreneurs, private philanthropy, academia, non-profit organizations) to reduce barriers and enable community action. This work has been recognized at the international and national levels. Most notably, the Governor’s Council to Address Aging was highlighted in The SCAN Foundation’s policy brief titled Building a Master Plan for Aging: Key Elements from States Planning for an Aging Population, and the Commonwealth was the first in the nation to submit its Age-Friendly State Action Plan as well as its year one progress report. Kathryn has been with EOEA since 2017 while completing her Master of Public Health from Boston University specializing in Healthcare Management and Policy. Prior to her role in public service, she spent six years with PwC Advisory Services as a Healthcare Consultant focused on IT Strategy. Outside of her professional commitments, Ms. Downes is a dedicated volunteer mentor with Minds Matter Boston, a non-profit organization with a mission to help students of color gain college admittance, often representing first-generation paths to higher education.

Molly Evans is the Senior Policy Manager of the Massachusetts Executive Office of Elder Affairs (EOEA). In her role she helps drive/supports the agency’s policy work around family caregiving, behavioral health, and technology and innovation. Prior to joining EOEA, Molly managed the MassHealth Personal Care Attendant (PCA) Program. She has also worked on the Livable Communities

and Long-term Services and Supports teams at AARP Public Policy Institute and the LeadingAge Center for Long-term Services and Supports. Molly has a BA from Washington University in St. Louis and an MS in Gerontology from the University of Massachusetts Boston.