New leadership team named for Center on Aging

The University of Maine has named a new leadership team to guide the UMaine Center on Aging as long-serving director Lenard Kaye departs from the role. The Center was founded in 2001 and has grown tremendously since thanks to the work of the Center’s leadership, faculty, staff and students. “I am deeply appreciative of the highly impactful work by the Center on Aging under the leadership of Dr. Kaye,” remarked Kody Varahramyan, UMaine vice president for research and dean of the graduate school. “The Center on Aging is one of the best examples of what applied research can do for Maine’s communities, and thanks to his leadership the Center is well-positioned to continue its outstanding work.” The new leadership team will help guide the multidisciplinary Center and will think strategically about where it can streamline operations while deepening expertise and continuing to engage the vast and diverse communities it serves.

“The Center on Aging has a longstanding track record of collaboration, research, and training both within Maine and nationally. Our new leadership model recognizes our strengths in these areas and brings us into a new phase of our work-one that continues to put older adults, their families, and the professionals and agencies that serve them at the center of our efforts. At the same time we are looking ahead to emerging issues of importance including climate change and aging, addressing ageism, and increasing accessibility to paid employment and civic engagement in later life,” stated Jennifer Crittenden, associate director for research

The new leadership team comprises the following members, many long serving members of the UMaine and University of Maine System:

• Sandra De Urioste-Stone, administrative director at the Center on Aging, professor of nature-based tourism and associate vice president for research
• Jennifer Crittenden, associate director for research and assistant professor in the School of Social Work
• Jenn Baker, associate director for administration at the Center on Aging and assistant vice president for research, finance, & administration
• David Wihry, assistant director for research and evaluation 
• Mary Lou Ciolfi, assistant director for policy and education
• Patricia Oh, assistant director for community innovation and research

The Center comprises four major divisions of programmatic activity: education and training, research and evaluation, policy analysis, and services and consultation. This activity has expanded as the Center increasingly grows their collaborations across UMaine, the University of Maine system and the state. This has resulted in interdisciplinary initiatives with faculty, students and staff who bring unique perspectives and experiences to the Center’s work. This is essential to tackling issues around aging because they are not limited to one discipline but rather envelope the whole of human experience.

Under this new leadership model, The Center on Aging will continue its long running outreach and community programming and well established research portfolio. This includes strengthening its newly launched Consortium for Aging Policy Research and Analysis (CAPRA) which brings cutting edge policy research and analysis into the hands of decision makers and leaders in the state and nationally. Maine’s aging population is diverse in many ways, one being geographically. Programs at the Center on Aging meet the needs of this growing diverse population, especially those isolated in rural locations, through programs like Maine Lifelong Communities, Retired and Senior Volunteer Program, and Senior Companions. This work not only impacts aging communities for the better but the community as a whole. 

As the Center enters a new era of leadership it seizes on an opportunity to blossom even further. The leadership team is committed to forwarding the Center’s mission to education, research and service.