Dr. Mezuk, an alumna of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation Health and Society Scholars Program, has been featured in two articles in the RWJF’s “Human Capital” Blog:

• Combating Suicide in the Population Most At Risk: Older, White Men
• Diabetes: The Case for Considering Context

GREMAP member Lauren Gray has accepted a job as a Program and Engagement Manager with the Virginia Oral Health Coalition, an organization dedicated to promoting oral health awareness and access to care in Virginia. Lauren will be leading the development of a statewide oral health report card for Virginia, as well as performing policy advocacy and analysis, stakeholder outreach and engagement, and program management.

Congratulations Lauren!

Dr. Mezuk was recently awarded a 3-year Innovative Clinical & Translational Science award from the American Diabetes Association for the project “Stress, self-regulatory behaviors, and diabetes disparities.” This grant will examine how stress exposure and stress reactivity contribute to the progression of metabolic risk among adults with pre-diabetes.

Dr. Shawnita Sealy-Jefferson has been invited as a speaker at the Mayor’s Summit on Health Equity in Detroit. The summit will be held May 2nd and 3rd at Wayne State University’s McGregor Memorial Conference Center, and will focus on understanding and addressing health disparities in Detroit.

Dr. Sealy-Jefferson will be speaking at the Physical Activity panel on May 3, and will address the topic of how neighborhood factors influence physical activity.

GREMAP was out in force at the 2015 Gerontological Society of America meeting! Drs. Mezuk, Cohen, Choi, Lohman and Brown braved the Orlando crowds and all presented at the conference.

GREMAP post-baccalaureate student Joshua Montgomery has presented his poster “The Relationship Between Food Insecurity and Depression among Adults with Type 2 Diabetes: Results from NHANES 2011-2012” at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS).

The ABRCMS conference is intended to provide opportunities and mentoring to underrepresented minority students in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM). More than 1,700 students from a variety of STEM disciplines attended this year’s conference.

 

The work of several GREMAP members will be presented at the Gerontological Society of America’s conference this week. A brief guide is below.

 

Thursday, November 19:

Session 435: Services and Programs for Older Drivers in the Transition to Non-Driving (Symposium)
Chair: Moon Choi
Time: 8:30 – 10:00 AM
Location: Oceanic 2 (D)

• Services and Programs for Older Drivers in the Transition to Non-Driving (Moon Choi; Amy Horowitz)
• Research on Older Drivers in Korea: A Critical Review (Moon Choi; Suji Gim; Kitae Jang; Chihyung Jeon)

Session 485: Adult Protection, Elder Abuse, and Frailty (Poster)
Time: 12:15 PM – 3:15 PM
Location: Atlantic Hall (D)

• Depression and Frailty Development as Concurrent Risks for Adverse Health Outcomes (Matthew Lohman; Briana Mezuk)

Session 760: Technology and Transportation (Symposium)
Chair: Sarah Raposo
Time: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Location: Asia 2 (D)

• Urban, suburban, rural variations in the transportation usage patterns and needs among older adults with multiple sclerosis (Moon Choi; Yuriko Katsumata ; Malachy Bishop)

Session 880: Social Stress, Coping, and Lifespan Mental and Physical Health Disparities (Symposium)
Chairs: C.M. Abdou Kamperveen; Briana Mezuk
Time: 3:30 PM – 5:00 PM
Location: Oceanic 5 (D)

• Social Stress, Coping, and Lifespan Mental and Physical Health Disparities (Cleopatra M. Abdou Kamperveen; James Jackson; Briana Mezuk)
• How Context Shapes Self-Regulatory Coping Behaviors (Briana Mezuk)

 

Saturday, November 21:

Session 1965: Evaluation of the National Family Caregiver Support Program (Poster)
Time: 1:00 PM – 2:30 PM
Location: Northern Hemisphere A3 (D)

• State Unit on Aging Survey Results (Cindy Gruman; Ashley Tomisek; Kristen Rice; Brendan Flinn; Betsy Dilla)

 

Sunday, November 22:

Session 2420: Family Caregiving 2
Chair: Silke Metzelthin
Time: 8:00 AM – 9:30 AM
Location: Oceanic 3 (D)

• Demographic and Socioeconomic Modifiers of the Association between Caregiving Intensity and Quality of Life in Informal Caregivers: Evidence from a National Survey (Steven A. Cohen; Sarah Cook; Lauren C. Kelley; Trisha A. Sando)

 

Dr. Mezuk was an invited speaker at a two-day workshop at McGill University in Montreal, Canada on “Depression and Pre-diabetes: A call to action.” The conference was hosted by Dr. Norbert Schmitz and involved speakers from around the world, including (pictured left to right) Dr. Larry Cimino, Director of the Dialogue on Diabetes and Depression, Dr. Mika Kivimaki, Professor at University College London and Director of the Whitehall Study; Dr. Michael Kyrios, Professor at the Australian National University; Dr. Laura Rosella from University of Toronto School of Public Health; Dr. Paul Ciechanowski, Professor at University of Washington; Dr. Frans Pouwer, Professor at University of Tilberg in the Netherlands; and Dr. Lorian Taylor from Alberta Health Services. More information about the conference is available here.