USC LEONARD DAVIS SCHOOL OF GERONTOLOGY
VOL. 12 A Magazine for All Ages
Important conversations and collaborations unite our school community despite the distance
FALL 2020
Staying Apart, Working Together
DEAN’S MESSAGE Dear USC Leonard Davis School community,
Pinchas Cohen MD Dean, USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology
Photo: Stephanie Kleinman
“The pandemic has shown us that we have the power to come together and take on immense challenges.”
I hope you are all doing well as we navigate this “new normal.” While the day-to-day routine of this year’s fall semester has looked very different from previous years, our mission to promote healthy aging for all remains the same. I am sincerely grateful for the creativity, adaptability and perseverance that our school and the entire Trojan Family have shown these past few months. Our brilliant faculty and student researchers have continued to conduct groundbreaking science — including important projects regarding COVID-19 — while adhering to procedures to keep themselves and their colleagues safe. Our students, faculty and staff have also made the online classroom their own, which demonstrates that our pioneering commitment to excellence in distance learning for more than 20 years has put us ahead of the curve at a critical time. And our incredible graduates continue to make a difference throughout the field, from research, medicine and public health to aging services and support for older adults. As we look ahead to the rest of the year and beyond, we know that difficulties lie before us, but we also have many reasons to be optimistic about our future. The pandemic has shown us that we have the power to come together and take on immense challenges. It has led to remarkable innovation and advocacy, especially on behalf of older adults, as well as to tough but necessary conversations about public health, injustice and other critical issues throughout the nation and the world. I am thankful for and proud of the way the members of our Trojan Family have come together to support one another and to uphold our school’s mission. As gerontologists, life is our work, and it is in times like these that we truly see what matters most in life.
VITALITY MAGAZINE — Chief Communications Officer Orli Belman Editor in Chief Beth Newcomb Managing Editor Natalie Avunjian Design Golden Design Studio Copy Editor Mary Nadler Contributors Lois Albert Angelo Michelle McCarthy Jenesse Miller Constance Sommer Cover Art Ryan Olbrysh USC Photo
USC LEONARD DAVIS SCHOOL OF GERONTOLOGY — Dean Pinchas Cohen Executive Vice Dean Kelvin J. A. Davies Senior Associate Dean Maria L. Henke Senior Associate Dean for Advancement David Eshaghpour Associate Dean of Research Sean Curran Assistant Dean of Diversity and Inclusion Susan Enguídanos Assistant Dean of Education John Walsh Assistant Dean of Faculty and Academic Affairs Mara Mather Senior Business Officer Lali Acuna Senior Human Resources Business Partner Wendy Snaer
INSIDE
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Postcard A virtual visit to Colombia
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Vital Signs Staying mindful and healthy at home
FEATURED —
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Q&A Joseph Saenz on health disparities
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Research Faculty study multiple aspects of COVID-19
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Classroom Online education with optimism and expertise
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A Century of COVID-19 What the 1918 pandemic may tell us about the legacy of the novel coronavirus
Caring for Caregivers Family caregivers need support and advocacy, says Donna Benton
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Internship Navigating COVID-19 at Kingsley Manor
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Support Biology of aging research grows with new gifts
20 24 34 Form, Function & Fighting Disease Senior living design and operation with health in mind
Intergenerational Understanding Supporting conversations for meaningful change
Doctor & Humanitarian Tyler Evans ’02 fights disease outbreaks, including COVID-19
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AWARDS
SPOTLIGHT
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Sean Curran Vincent Cristofalo Rising Star Award in Aging Research, American Federation of Aging Research
Bérénice Benayoun, an assistant professor of gerontology, aims to learn more about why female mammals—including humans— age differently than males. Sexual dimorphism, the difference in physiological characteristics between the sexes, can have big implications for health and lifespan. Human longevity differs markedly between the sexes, with women consistently having a longer average lifespan than men. This pattern has also been observed among many other mammals. Other health indicators, such as immune response and even regulation of gene expression, also differ based on sex hormones and chromosomes, Benayoun says. “Despite the potential significance of sex-dimorphic mechanisms, remarkably little is known about differential genomic and functional regulation in female versus male aging,” Benayoun wrote in her proposal for the Pew Scholars Program in the Biomedical Sciences, a grant program of the Pew Charitable Trusts. She is one of 22 early-career scientists named to the program this year in the United States. The Genetics Society of America and the Gruber Foundation also awarded Benayoun the 2019 Rosalind Franklin Young Investigator Award. The three-year, $75,000 grant award recognizes talented female scientists whose focus is genetics. In addition, Benayoun and Min Hoo Kim, a postdoctoral fellow in Benayoun’s laboratory, both received research grants from the Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity and Equality, an initiative of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. — B.N.
Min-Hoo Kim Postdoctoral Scholar Award, Global Consortium for Reproductive Longevity and Equality Alexander Maher ’20 Okin Award, USC Dornsife Department of Biological Sciences Bianca Paulus MSNHL ’21 USC Latino Alumni Association Scholarship Ranier Castillo MSNHL ’20 Outstanding Dietetic Student in a Coordinated Program, Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics
QUOTABLE —
“Essentially, 10% to 20% of cases of dementia can be ascribed to exposure to excess air pollution. We know what to do about it, and the rest is political.” — Caleb Finch, who discussed Alzheimer’s, inflammation and COVID-19 in a June 24, 2020, Facebook live chat
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Art: Natalie Avunjian, Dario Griffin, Jinho Kim, Alexander Maher, Bianca Paulus, Joshtian John, John Skalicky, andresr/iStock, Evgenii_Bobrov/iStock, ibrandify/Freepik
NEWS BITES
GLOSSARY — Coronavirus A type of virus named for a “crown” of spike proteins on its surface. COVID-19 is caused by a coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2. - Centers for Disease Control and Prevention
POSTCARD —
Cultural Immersion Students in GERO 499 took a virtual visit to Colombia. They received hands-on instruction in how to make arepas—a cross between a tortilla and a pancake that can be found at nearly every meal—and learned the footwork for salsa, mapale, merengue and other popular Latin American dances. These interactive lessons were part of a Maymester course that Zoom-delivered Colombian culture directly to students — and in the case of the cooking class, their parents and younger relatives who joined in to assist. “It ended up being a really engaging experience, even though we were totally online,” says Margarita Osuna, a USC Leonard Davis School doctoral student and Colombia native. “And I think that made it a lot of fun for all of us.” Latin America is aging rapidly, says Associate Professor Jennifer Ailshire. She launched the course as a way to help students understand the societal impacts of this accelerated rate, which is twice as fast as the rate of aging in the United States. Moving the class online challenged Ailshire to be more creative with her lesson plans, something she believes can improve all teaching going forward. “It’s important to activate that spark in students so they connect with the content,” she says. “And I worried I couldn’t re-create that spark if we weren’t in the country.” If this feedback from USC health and human sciences major Natalia Jun is any indication, Ailshire needn’t have been concerned: “This class revitalized my passion for learning,” Jun says. — O.B.
R Number Also called reproduction number; the average number of people one person with an infectious disease will likely infect in the future. An R number greater than 1 means the disease is spreading. - New Scientist Incubation Period The period between exposure to an infection and the appearance of the first symptoms; for COVID-19, this period is 2 to 14 days. - WebMD
FALL 2020 | 3
NEWS BITES
KNBC-TV
IN THE MEDIA —
Los Angeles Times
Coronavirus kills black people at twice the rate as white people: Here’s what we can do about it “We are all in this together, and as individuals it should be our responsibility to protect those folks who don’t have the same resources to weather this storm.” — Assistant Professor Reginald Tucker-Seeley
Fox News
RECENTLY PUBLISHED
Paul Nash Critical Questions for Ageing Societies
Dementia underlying cause in 3 times more deaths in U.S. than currently reported, study concludes “These findings indicate that dementia represents a much more important factor in U.S. mortality than previously indicated by routine death records.” — University Professor Eileen Crimmins
Vox
Why the coronavirus may be killing more Americans than the government data says “It‘s possible that emergency response teams, hospitals, and nursing home facilities overburdened with coronavirus have been unable to effectively prevent deaths from other causes they would ordinarily have been able to.” — Assistant Professor Jessica Ho
Salon
Amid deadly virus, a push for nursing home alternatives “I think at the end of the day, you might not really be able to [move away from institutional settings]. There are some people who are very, very sick, and their families cannot take care of them.” — Research Assistant Professor Anna Rahman
KPCC-FM
The Atlantic
U.S. News & World Report
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences
Eviction threats, lockdown and loneliness in nursing homes amid COVID-19 “We’re certainly seeing more of a sense of hopelessness and helplessness, feelings of anxiety and particularly of isolation.” — Research Associate Professor Donna Benton
Fight the coronavirus by defending the host “Building widespread resilience to mitigate the impacts of the virus should be a public priority. A multifaceted national campaign to address the ‘other epidemic’ of chronic disease is already long overdue.” — Distinguished Scholar in Residence Paul Irving
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Coronavirus outbreak: The importance of hugs “We’re social creatures, and as social animals, we can’t survive without each other.” — Associate Professor Jennifer Ailshire
COVID-19 won’t change us forever “Most people are familiar with post-traumatic stress, but the more common reaction is post-traumatic growth, when people thrive after enduring a negative life-changing event.” — Research Assistant Professor T. Em Arpawong
News Feature: How air pollution threatens brain health “We’ve almost entirely ignored the brain. [Shifting Alzheimer’s disease onset earlier by a year or two] could be an immense cost.” — University Professor Caleb Finch
Want more? Check out these gerontology genre picks:
LITERATURE —
Read All About It
The summer of 2020 was one for the books at the USC Leonard Davis School as faculty, students and alumni came together over Zoom for a series of book club discussions exploring titles related to longevity and pandemics. “The book club brought groups together who may not normally interact and are quite different in the way they approach the topic of aging,” says Assistant Professor Andrei Irimia, who moderated one of the sessions. “I thought it was a great way to have scientists like myself read and talk about more social human aspects of aging.” And, the neuroscientist adds, books are good for our brains. “The book art form is very profound,” he says. “It makes you think. It makes you imagine things in your head. And there are lots of studies showing improvement in cognition from reading and exercising your own imagination.” — O.B. Missed the meetings? Catch up on what the book club read over the summer:
Art: Policy Press; Picador; Virago Press Ltd; Crown Publishing
The Plague by Albert Camus (1947) “A gripping tale of human unrelieved horror, of survival and resilience… profoundly relevant to our times.” — from the publisher Being Mortal: Medicine and What Matters in the End by Atul Gawande (2014) “[B]estselling author Atul Gawande tackles the hardest challenge of his profession: how medicine can not only improve life but also the process of its ending.” — from the publisher A Man Called Ove by Fredrik Backman (2012) “[A] thoughtful exploration of the profound impact one life has on countless others.” — from the publisher
All Men Are Mortal by Simone de Beauvoir (1946) “A good book about the absurdity of humanity’s wish of immortality.” — Assistant Professor Andrei Irimia Two Old Women: An Alaska Legend of Betrayal, Courage and Survival by Velma Wallace (1993) “[A]n octogenarian version of Thelma and Louise. Triumphant.” — Kirkus Reviews Still Alice by Lisa Genova (2007) “A compelling debut novel about a 50-yearold woman’s sudden descent into early onset Alzheimer’s disease.” — from the publisher Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi (2016) A multigenerational saga “about race, history, ancestry, love and time.” — from the publisher Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez (1985) “An exceptional half-century story of unrequited love.” — from the publisher The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot (2010) “A must-read for people interested in modern biomedical research.” — Assistant Professor Bérénice Benayoun
FALL 2020 | 5
NEWS BITES
Fasting-Mimicking Diet Could Enhance Breast Cancer Therapy
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Dementia-Related Deaths Higher Than Reported
Deaths attributed to dementia and other cognitive impairment may be vastly undercounted in the U.S., according to a study by USC, Boston University and University of Pennsylvania researchers. From 2000 to 2009, dementia was listed as a contributing factor on approximately 5% of death certificates. However, when the team analyzed health histories of Health and Retirement Study participants who died, 13.6% of deaths were found to be attributable to dementia — more than 2.7 times the rate reported on death certificates during those years. The data also emphasized large disparities in dementia-linked mortality by race/ethnicity and education level. The study was published in JAMA Neurology. “These disparities in dementia-attributable death reflect the unequal impact of Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias we’ve seen in previous research,” said University Professor Eileen Crimmins, the study’s senior author. “This highlights the need to expand research and populationbased interventions focused on dementia prevention and care.” — B.N.
“Humanin has long been known to help prevent many age-related diseases, and this is the first time it has been shown that it can also increase lifespan.” –Pinchas Cohen, professor of gerontology, medicine and biological sciences and dean of the USC Leonard Davis School
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Mitochondrial Protein Appears to Regulate Health, Lifespan
A USC study is the first to demonstrate that a tiny protein has a big impact on health and longevity. The researchers examined humanin, a peptide encoded in the small genome of mitochondria — the powerhouses of the cell – rather than the main genome in a cell’s nucleus. From experiments in laboratory animals to measurements in human patients, the study, published in the journal Aging, demonstrated that higher levels of humanin in the body are connected to longer lifespans and better health, including a lower risk of diseases such as Alzheimer’s. “Humanin has long been known to help prevent many age-related diseases, and this is the first time it has been shown that it can also increase lifespan,” said senior author Pinchas Cohen, professor of gerontology, medicine and biological sciences and dean of the USC Leonard Davis School. — B.N.
Art: artoleshko/iStock
FINDINGS
A fasting-mimicking diet combined with hormone therapy could help treat breast cancer, according to newly published animal studies and recent clinical trials in humans. In studies on mice and in small clinical trials, researchers from USC, the IFOM Cancer Institute in Milan and the University of Genova found that the fasting-mimicking diet reduces blood insulin, insulin-like growth factor 1 (IGF1) and leptin. In mice, these effects appear to increase the power of the cancer drugs tamoxifen and fulvestrant and delay resistance to those drugs. The research was published in Nature. “Our new study shows that a fastingmimicking diet, together with endocrine therapy for breast cancer, is able to not only shrink tumors, but also reverse resistant tumors in mice,” said Professor Valter Longo, the study’s senior author. — J.M.
NEW DIRECTIONS —
Center on Biodemography and Population Health Renewed for Five Years The National Institute on Aging has awarded a five-year, nearly $4.4 million renewal to the USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography and Population Health. The center, one of 14 centers in the Demography and Economics of Aging Centers Program sponsored by the NIA, aims to enhance understanding of the biological processes that contribute to population health and health disparities in older adults and disadvantaged populations. The center provides funding and support for pilot projects and ongoing biodemography research for scientists throughout USC and UCLA — including demographers, biologists, economists, psychologists, epidemiologists, health policy specialists, medical researchers and clinical geriatricians—and shares research outcomes and population health models with scientists and policymakers. It also hosts informational workshops and trains students in research methods. The multisite center is directed by University Professor Eileen Crimmins, holder of the AARP Chair in Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School, and co-directed by Teresa Seeman, professor of medicine and epidemiology, and Steve Cole, professor of medicine, psychiatry and biobehavioral sciences, at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA. Since it was first funded in 1999, the center has been a driving force behind the integration of biomarkers into population studies, from the measurement of cholesterol and blood pressure to the collection of genetic and epigenetic data and even magnetic resonance imaging results, Crimmins said. “Biological, epidemiological and medical risk information are fundamental to understanding and projecting demographic trends and differences in population health,” she said. — B.N.
USC-Buck Nathan Shock Center to Advance Biology Research The USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging have received a five-year, $4.6 million National Institute on Aging award to jointly establish the Nathan Shock Center of Excellence in the Basic Biology of Aging. The USC-Buck Nathan Shock Center will forge a deeper understanding of how and why aging processes cause disease in order to advance the translation of basic research on aging into effective preventions and therapies. Activities of the USC-Buck NSC will include funding innovative pilot projects, providing access to leading-edge technologies and mentoring junior investigators from across the nation to become the next leaders in the field of research on aging. “The USC-Buck Nathan Shock Center will be far more than the sum of its already outstanding parts and will help continue the exponential growth in this critical research area in the coming years,” said co-principal investigator Pinchas Cohen, MD, dean of the USC Leonard Davis School. “I am excited to expand on our productive partnership, and I believe our joint Nathan Shock Center will enhance promising research in the biology of aging at both USC and the Buck Institute and will serve to make a positive impact across California and the nation, and throughout the world.” — O.B.
3x Since 2012, the USC Leonard Davis School has tripled its annual federal research funding
FALL 2020 | 7
VITAL SIGNS
Staying Healthy at Home by Orli Belman
— Edward L. Schneider, dean emeritus and professor of gerontology, medicine and biology
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PRACTICE MEDITATION & MINDFULNESS There’s a long history of what meditation can do in terms of preserving heart health, says Dean Emeritus Edward L. Schneider, professor of gerontology, medicine and biology. “I think there’s no question there are health benefits of meditation if you do it on a regular basis,” he says. “And the same is true for mindfulness. Mindfulness [involves] a part of the brain that is stimulated when you are doing mindful exercises. For example, just the idea of gratitude will light up an area of your brain on a PET scan. There’s no question that
mindfulness and meditation are great assets to people who have to stay at home.” STAY CONNECTED THROUGH FOOD Even if we can’t be physically close to loved ones, we can still share meals together, says Cary Kreutzer, associate professor of gerontology and pediatrics and director of the USC Leonard Davis School’s Master of Science in Nutrition, Healthspan and Longevity degree program. “I think that as we all are sequestered in our homes and may or may not be with extended family, [we can use] whatever sources of media to make those connections with family members,” Kreutzer says. “ [You can reach] out to them to have them on the line as you’re preparing an old family recipe or as you’re enjoying a meal, and feel as if they’re there with you.”
Art: nadia_bormotova/iStock, USC Schaeffer Center
“Mindfulness and meditation are great assets to people who have to stay at home.”
Physical distancing and sheltering in place have been important for slowing the spread of COVID-19, but isolation and the disruption of usual activities can also affect health and well-being. USC Leonard Davis experts share tips for staying healthy while staying at home.
REMAIN RESILIENT T. Em Arpawong, an assistant professor of research at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and faculty member in the Resilience Lab at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, says we can draw on strengths we may not even know we possess. For example, anxiety and depression linked to COVID-19 peaked in early April — but then declined. According to results from USC Dornsife’s Understanding Coronavirus in America survey, even those who lost jobs experienced a steady decrease in mental distress throughout May. “I think these results point toward what is part of the natural human condition: There is a tendency toward survival, coping and more resiliency so that people can move forward. Even if people continue to have these same contextual stressors around them, the majority are not going to sustain an overwhelmed stress response. People are able to bounce back by drawing on the resources available to them, including friends and family, financial resources and their own inner strength.”
View more tips on our Instagram: @USCLeonardDavis
Joseph Saenz, assistant professor of gerontology, is the holder of the Leonard and Sophie Davis Early Career Chair in Minority Aging and studies aging among racial and ethnic minorities. Q: Tell us about your current research. A: My work seeks to understand socioeconomic disparities in cognitive decline and dementia across the United States and Mexico. I am especially interested in identifying the mechanisms through which education influences cognitive outcomes in late life, and how familial resources may be involved. Q: What aging issues affect the MexicanAmerican population in particular? A: They are aging and growing rapidly. This makes it increasingly important to understand how any health condition affects Mexican-American individuals and their families and communities. Cognitive impairment and dementia often require informal family caregivers to care for relatives, especially in Mexican-American households, where family caregiving is highly common. Q: What inspired you to study aging? A: One of my biggest inspirations was seeing how fast population aging is occurring in low- and middle-income countries, and how little we know about aging in these contexts compared to high-income countries. This has inspired me to focus my research on identifying risk factors for poor health outcomes in low- and middle-income countries, with the ultimate goal of improving health and reducing health disparities.
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NEWS BITES COVID-19 RESEARCH — USC Leonard Davis School scientists have joined the fight against the novel coronavirus in a variety of ways, working to understand the biology of the virus, interpret public health data, and help vulnerable and isolated individuals, including older adults. Read about some of their expertise here, and learn more at gero.usc.edu/covid-19.
Exploring How Diet Affects Immune Function
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Predicting Virus Mutation
A collaboration between the USC Leonard Davis School, Mississippi State University and Utrecht University in the Netherlands is aimed at predicting new strains of the novel coronavirus by examining how its genes mutate, which could help create more effective vaccines against COVID-19. Assistant Professor of Gerontology Marc Vermulst and his colleagues will use a technique called circle sequencing to closely estimate the mutation rate of the SARS-CoV-2 genome. Unlike traditional gene sequencing, circle sequencing results in far fewer errors, allowing true mutations in the genome to be more easily located. This can help identify genes that can’t mutate without the virus’s dying, which should be reliable targets for a vaccine. “A precise measurement of the mutation rate is critical to model the future evolution of the virus,” Vermulst explains.
Icons: ibrandify/Freepik
Professor Valter Longo, director of the USC Longevity Institute, is investigating how fasting and diets that mimic fasting’s effects can help immune function, including vaccine efficacy and the body’s response to infection by viruses such as the H1N1 influenza virus and, eventually, SARS-CoV-2. Longo’s research has demonstrated that in mice, cycles of fasting or fasting-mimicking diets followed by the return to a normal diet appear to “get rid of damaged or misguided cells and replace them with younger and more effective immune cells,” he says. Early clinical trials show this immune system rejuvenation may also happen in humans, providing potential health benefits. Longo says these findings support having clinical trials to determine whether such diets are effective in improving immune system function and increasing vaccine efficacy, including a potential SARS-CoV-2 vaccine, in older adults.
Discerning COVID-19’s Financial Impact
For many Americans who have lost jobs or income due to COVID-19, the extension or end of social distancing measures may mean the start of another challenging chapter for which one-time cash payments may be insufficient, says Assistant Professor Reginald Tucker-Seeley, holder of the Edward L. Schneider Chair in Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School. He argues that interventions to help people stay healthy must consider additional factors, like the physical and mental toll of the stress they feel and the coping behaviors they adopt when money is tight. “Coping responses could be people not buying or taking less of their medications,” he says. “If families don’t have sufficient financial resources, they begin making tradeoffs. The challenge is ensuring that those trade-offs are not harmful to their health.” For one study, Tucker-Seeley is collaborating with a group of physicians to track financial hardship for those who have contracted the novel coronavirus. He also intends to review policies and legislation related to COVID-19, including the CARES Act, to determine how the additional funds are distributed and whether these funds are used to reduce health disparities — and not exacerbate them.
Tracking Well-Being, Beliefs and Behavior Associate Professor Mireille Jacobson is tracking the well-being of seniors ages 62– 69 just before and after community spread of COVID-19 was recognized. Jacobson is collaborating on a large, 17,000-participant longitudinal study with Assistant Professor of Economics Silvia Barcellos and Professor of Psychology, Economics, and Public Policy Arthur Stone, both staff members at the USC Center for Economic and Social Research. The researchers recently completed the study’s third wave of data collection. “Among older adults, we find a worsening of affect and depressive symptoms that is systematically related to local rates of COVID-19 transmission. Importantly, however, we also see some evidence of bounceback over time, as people adjust to living in a world with COVID-19,” Jacobson said. Jacobson is also collaborating with Contra Costa Health Services, USC Associate Professor of Finance and Business Economics Tom Chang and economist Manisha Shah of UCLA to understand how individuals in Contra Costa County, Calif., change their beliefs and behavior related to COVID-19 after getting an antibody test. The team also hopes to expand this work to study racial and ethnic disparities in COVID-19 testing and behavior. — B.N.
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NEWS BITES
CLASSROOM —
As online education and virtual classrooms become the norm, students and teachers alike continue to tackle new challenges. USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology Associate Professor John Walsh, assistant dean of education, is an expert in online instruction and the winner of numerous university awards and National Science Foundation grants for teaching with technology, He has dedicated time to mastering the online classroom and providing valuable insight for both students and teachers. He’s shared his techniques for online education with colleagues at the USC Leonard Davis School and throughout USC. “Discussions are interactive, and students respond by articulating what they have learned,” Walsh says. “Students have to have substantive posts and comment on their classmates’ posts. In the end, they get to know one another better because they’re interacting every week. It engages all aspects of learning.”
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He encourages professors to engage with students in new and innovative ways that they might not have considered in a physical setting. Additionally, Walsh encourages everyone to plan activities in advance to keep the body and mind stimulated. Kaitlyn Yi, a sophomore in the Lifespan Health program, took a summer gerontology class and is preparing to take on the upcoming semester from her home in Chicago. Her experiences with online courses have improved with the format changes implemented by the university. “Online [learning in the summer] was beneficial for me in that I was able to work at my own pace. Prerecorded lectures and adjustments to due dates prevented me from overworking and worrying about time zone differences,” Yi says. “While it also has its cons, I hope that online teaching can be as effective as in-person teaching and help me apply myself in meaningful ways.” — L.A.A.
Art: elenabs/iStock, Stephanie Kleinman
Online Education with Expertise and Optimism
Tips for Teaching Online Online education expert John Walsh shares the tips he’s learned over the years that can help even novice instructors improve their teaching, both online and off. 1. DO YOUR HOMEWORK. “Being an effective online instructor is no different than excelling in any other field,” Walsh says. “It takes time. You have to put in the effort.” Walsh recommends researching what tools are available, such as the free tutorials at Lynda.com, and learning the power of your school’s learning management system (which is Blackboard at USC). “Once you get it figured out, it is really powerful.” 2. MULTITASK. Walsh says to stay away from the sage-ona-stage model of teaching. A typical class session has him bouncing back and forth between interactive discussions in Blackboard, PowerPoint slides in Zoom and other audiovisual tools to hold students’ attention. “If you just sit their droning on over Blackboard, students’ eyes will roll back in their heads,” he says. “I bring in videos and even music to keep them engaged.” Walsh also suggests inviting outside speakers, which is easier to do now that they can be situated anywhere in the country or the world.
3. HAVE A BACKUP PLAN. This applies not only to preparing for possible technical issues, but also to switching to another style of teaching when the need arises. For example, once his 200-student lecture class moved online, Walsh realized he needed a new way to approach the midterm exam. Instead of a traditional test, he divided students into multiple Zoom breakout rooms and had them collaborate to solve problems as a group. “It was awesome,” he says. “I was able to see them working together and applying what they’d learned.” 4. GET FEEDBACK. Discussion boards are one of Walsh’s favorite features in learning management systems. Requiring students to answer questions, state their opinions or argue a point makes for meaningful conversations that include all students, not just the handful who might voluntarily speak up in a lecture hall. “This gives everyone a voice and an opportunity to get to know one another,” he says. “They have to articulate their thoughts about and understanding of the material.” 5. BE CREATIVE. That was literally an assignment Walsh gave his students. They formed a “creative corporation” with several subsidiaries, working in groups of 10 to produce various forms of digital content, from film to fashion, to be shared online. It doesn’t hurt that Walsh teaches a course on creativity and the brain, but the lesson can apply to any topic. “Bringing people together is important,” he says. “If you embrace the technology, the opportunities to make lessons memorable and meaningful are endless.” — O.B.
1998 USC Leonard Davis launches first-ever WASCaccredited online master’s degree program
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A CENTURY OF
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COVID-19
USC research showed that people born during or just after the 1918 flu pandemic faced increased heart disease risk more than 60 years later. The legacy of the novel coronavirus could be worse.
By Beth Newcomb
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LOOKING TO THE PAST
F
or nearly a year, the novel coronavirus and the resulting COVID-19 pandemic have dominated headlines across the world, and justifiably so. With nearly 45 million cases reported and more than 1.1 million deaths worldwide as of October 29, 2020, the short-term impact of this disease has been stark and devastating. But as health care providers, researchers and public health professionals across the globe grapple with the immediate challenges presented by the COVID-19 pandemic — preventing viral transmission, identifying cases, successfully treating the disease and creating an effective vaccine — scientists’ thoughts also turn to the future and the long-term health issues the pandemic might present to the more than 30 million people who have survived SARS-CoV-2 infection. Many COVID-19 survivors will face sequelae, or the aftereffects of infection, predicts Pinchas Cohen, dean of the USC Leonard Davis School. Damage to the lungs, brain and heart has already been observed in survivors, and “our medical system is going to be highly impacted,” he says. However, the true extent of any long-term effects will likely take years to measure accurately. While many questions remain about what the aftermath of the pandemic will look like, we can take a few clues from history, say USC University Professors Eileen Crimmins and Caleb Finch. “I think that COVID is setting us up for a hundred years of problems,” predicted Crimmins, who holds the AARP Chair in Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School.
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A little more than 100 years ago, the world faced another pandemic that gripped the world’s attention. The culprit then was an H1N1 influenza virus that became known as the “Spanish flu.” In total, the 1918–1919 pandemic claimed at least 50 million lives, after having infected around half a billion people—one-third of the world’s population at the time. Approximately 675,000 people died in the U.S., with the flu first identified in this country in soldiers stationed at an Army base in Kansas during the spring of 1918. The mortality patterns of the 1918 flu differed from COVID-19, Crimmins says. In both pandemics, individuals over age 65 were at particular risk, but children younger than 5 and adults between 20 and 40 years of age also faced a high rate of death from the 1918 flu. “1918 was particularly hard on young adults, those in the childbearing years, [while] COVID-19 is particularly hard on older adults,” Crimmins says. But beyond the high death toll, the full impact of the 1918–1919 pandemic wouldn’t be realized until more than 60 years later. In 2009, Finch and Crimmins published a study examining epidemiological data on individuals born in 1919, who were newborns or second- or thirdtrimester fetuses during the height of the pandemic. The data revealed that these individuals had approximately 25% more heart disease after age 60, as well as increased diabetes risk, compared to a similar cohort of individuals not born in 1919, including those who were older infants during the pandemic. While the researchers didn’t have data on exactly which people were exposed to the flu either in utero or as infants in 1918–1919, the results were nevertheless strikingly different between the two age cohorts. In addition to higher levels of ischemic heart disease as well as diabetes in those who could have been exposed prenatally, U.S. census data indicated that the cohort of children born in early 1919 attained less education and had lower economic productivity over their lifetime, suggesting a higher level of developmental impairment or other long-term health issues in those with prenatal flu exposure at the height of the outbreak. Adult height (as recorded at World War II enlistment) was also slightly lower for the 1919 birth cohort than for those born in adjacent years, which suggests that overall growth was also negatively affected. “The fact that this cohort of people had elevated risks
Photos: MPI/Getty Images, Paul Thompson/FPG/Hulton Archive/Getty Images, Yahya Diwer/AFP via Getty Images
of disease even more than six decades after the pandemic indicates that maternal exposure to the influenza virus appears to have had wide-ranging and long-lasting health effects on offspring,” Crimmins says. Subsequent studies have shed further light on the potential for inflammation to cause indelible damage, especially to the heart. Crimmins and Finch hypothesize that one mechanism of this could be the increase in inflammatory response, including an increase in the protein interleukin-6 (IL-6), resulting in developmental changes affecting the fetus. An increase in IL-6, which can cross the blood-brain barrier, has been observed with COVID-19, with such an increase part of the dangerous “cytokine storms” seen in severely ill patients. But there are other mechanisms linked to the novel coronavirus that provide additional cause for concern, says Finch, who holds the ARCO/William F. Kieschnick Chair in the Neurobiology of Aging at the Leonard Davis School. EFFECTS COULD BE WIDESPREAD AND LONG TERM While the most well-known hallmark of COVID-19 is a marked deterioration in lung function, health care providers and COVID-19 survivors have reported many other startling and dangerous effects of the illness, including heart damage, blood clotting that results in strokes, cognitive difficulty, general debilitation and weakness. A number of survivors report being among those known as “long-haulers” — individuals who continue to suffer from ill effects long after the virus is no longer detectable in their bodies. This array of wide-ranging effects throughout the body may be due to the affinity of the virus for the angiotensin-converting enzyme-2, or ACE2, receptor, Finch says. ACE2 receptors are widely present in cells of the alveoli—tiny, saclike structures in the lungs that play a key role in the exchange of oxygen and carbon dioxide as we breathe. The receptors are also found on cells in many tissue types throughout the body, including within the heart, blood vessels, kidneys, liver and gastrointestinal tract. “[ACE2 receptors] are found in cells everywhere,” he says. “You can anticipate a very broad number of consequences.” Under healthy circumstances, ACE2 plays an important role in modulating the activity of the protein angiotensin II in the renin-angiotensin-aldosterone system (RAAS) pathway, a process regulating body functions
Above: Doctors give treatment to an influenza patient at the US Naval Hospital in New Orleans in 1918. Previous pages: A Red Cross nurse during the 1918 influenza pandemic, and a member of the medical staff in the COVID-19 ward at Sheikh Zayed Hospital in Cairo, Egypt on April 29, 2020.
"[People born in 1919] had elevated risks of disease even more than six decades after the pandemic," says Crimmins.
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Both now and in 1918, health officials urged everyone to wear masks to slow the spread of disease. Left: Masked Angelenos attend a minor league baseball game during the influenza pandemic of 1918-1919. Right: Customers wear face masks as they line up to enter a Costco Wholesale store on April 16, 2020 in Wheaton, Maryland.
such as blood pressure, wound healing and inflammation. However, the “spike” proteins of SARS-CoV-2 bind to a cell’s ACE2 receptors like a key into a lock, granting the virus access to the cell, enabling the virus to replicate itself and subverting normal ACE2 function in the process. This allows angiotensin II activity to go unchecked, which likely contributes to tissue injury, especially in the heart and lungs. “It creates cell death and a fibrous response,” Finch explains, “so the lung tissue is displaced by scar tissue, in effect. This also has a clotting consequence that’s been unknown for the influenza series.” “What’s happening to people’s lungs now seems totally different [than with the 1918 flu],” Crimmins says, explaining that people who died from the 1918 flu tended to die of secondary infections following the illness, including bacterial pneumonia. In comparison, COVID-19 deaths appear to be more directly attributable to deterioration of lung function. “The lungs just fall apart,” she says. According to a recent study published in JAMA, even asymptomatic people who have tested positive for SARSCoV-2 infection have been found to have signs of tissue damage, including myocarditis, or inflammation of the heart. Could this be a precursor to an increased risk of heart disease or other health issues in the future, such
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as those seen with people born in 1919? With people of all ages affected, “We may have a century of COVID damage,” Finch warns. AN EPIDEMIC OF MISTRUST Amid the ongoing threat to health, the current pandemic also echoes the 1918–1919 influenza in the debates surrounding societal responses to the illness, increasing the risk for more infection and thus more long-term impact. The sound bites are familiar, according to news articles from 1918 and 1919. Scientists and public health officials urged the shutdown of crowded gathering spaces; supported mandates to wear masks; and promoted isolation, quarantine and hygiene as the main weapons in the battle against the illness. Those opposing such public health measures made assertions about the futility of or harm caused by wearing masks, as well as the economic risks of shutting down businesses. People fought against the idea that the pandemic was a serious threat—even though there was not yet a vaccine for influenza, nor were there antibiotics to treat resulting secondary infections. However, the media landscape was not nearly as varied, nor as constant and pervasive, as it is today.
Photos: Hearst Corporation Los Angeles Examiner/USC Libraries Special Collections, Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images
In 2020, individuals’ behavior in response to the pandemic has closely correlated with the kinds of mass media outlets they trust, according to a study published in BMJ Global Health by USC PhD in gerontology students Erfei Zhao and Qiao Wu and co-authored by Crimmins and associate professor of gerontology and sociology Jennifer Ailshire. Zhao, Wu and colleagues analyzed response data from the Understanding America Study’s COVID-19 panel on how often participants performed five virus-mitigating behaviors during the coronavirus pandemic: (1) wearing a face mask, (2) washing hands with soap or using hand sanitizer several times per day, (3) canceling or postponing personal or social activities, (4) avoiding eating at restaurants, (5) and avoiding public spaces, gatherings or crowds. In addition, the team also looked at risky health behaviors, including going out to a bar, club or other place where people gather; going to another person’s residence; having outside visitors such as friends, neighbors or relatives at one’s home; attending a gathering with more than 10 people, such as a party, concert or religious service; or having close contact (within six feet) with someone who doesn’t live with the respondent. Using CNN as an example of a left-leaning news source and Fox News as a news source on the right side of the political spectrum, the study identified the relative amount of trust participants reported in either news source with the risky or positive behaviors they engaged in. Risky behaviors were highest among participants who reported more trust in Fox News, followed closely by those who reported trusting neither outlet. Positive behaviors were more frequently reported among those who trusted CNN more than Fox News. The results imply that behavior sharply differs along media bias lines, indicating that partisan narratives are likely getting in the way of solid health messaging that encourages healthy behavior change. “In such a highly partisan environment, false information can be easily disseminated. Health messaging, which is one of the few effective ways to slow down the spread of the virus in the absence of a vaccine, is being damaged by politically biased and economically focused narratives,” say Zhao and Wu. PREVENTION TODAY FOR A BETTER TOMORROW Looking beyond the scientific unknowns or misinformation in popular media, one thing is clear, according to
Could tissue damage caused by COVID-19 be a precursor to health issues in the future? "We may have a century of COVID damage," Finch warns.
Crimmins and Finch: Preventing as much further infection as possible will be our best bet for staving off the worst long-term outcomes. In addition to personal health behaviors, public policy changes and increased research support can help identify other ways to help those most at risk of infection and complications. More basic science research is needed to understand how viruses such as SARS-CoV-2 affect people of different ages and health histories, which could provide insight on how to better address COVID-19 and any future pandemics. And new policies and programs at both the local and national levels could help older people as well as people of lower socioeconomic status, who often face increased risk due to denser living conditions or more exposure to the public through their work. “Biological factors may strongly affect how people respond to infection with COVID-19, but social rather than biological factors primarily determine the likelihood that people of different ages get infected with COVID-19, get diagnosed with the disease, and get treated in a timely fashion,” Crimmins wrote in a paper published in Public Policy & Aging Report. In an analysis of positive health behaviors by age, Crimmins and her team found that older adults in the U.S., though slow to adopt preventive measures when the pandemic first started, have now improved their rate of mask-wearing, hand-washing and maintaining physical distance from others. Until an effective vaccine is released, much of the immediate power to prevent further infection lies with individuals and their health behaviors. Keeping the possibility of long-term complications in mind, people of all ages should learn from history and take fighting the virus seriously, Crimmins and Finch say.
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FORM FUNCTION & FIGHTING DISEASE
Separate clusters of single-occupancy units with private bathrooms make physical distancing easier.
More important than ever during the COVID-19 pandemic, USC experts teach students how to design and operate senior living facilities that promote public health. By Constance Sommer
WHEN JIM BIGGS SIGNED UP to teach a course last spring on senior living management, he expected to create the curriculum. He did not expect to be the curriculum. Then, in early April, the coronavirus infiltrated the Chicago-area senior living complex where Biggs was the executive director, and the class Zoom meetings “turned into my weekly therapy sessions,” he jokes. He shared with the students, many of whom worked in senior living facilities themselves, everything that was going on at the Carrington at Lincolnwood, and the steps he and his staff were taking to solve the crisis. Ultimately, out of a total of about 240 residents, two residents in independent living, six in assisted living and seven in memory care were infected with COVID-19.
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Multipurpose patios provide safe, well-ventilated and accessible outdoor spaces.
Full-time staff members dedicated to specific clusters reduce disease transmission throughout the complex. Decentralized services, such as cleaning and cooking for each cluster, lessen the spread of illness.
In addition to screening visitors and staff upon entry, easily cleanable surfaces, handwashing/sanitizer stations and readily available protective equipment reduce the risk of introducing disease.
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The students watched as Biggs and many members of his staff temporarily moved into the facility as a way to limit contact from the outside. They listened as he described how some staff members, terrified of getting ill, refused to come to work, forcing remaining nursing staff to take on double duty, with Biggs himself taking on added tasks such as dog walking and package delivery. He told students about his decision to give his cell phone number to the families of residents, and about the kinds of panicked calls he got, day and night, from relatives desperate for information about their loved ones. “We shared with [the students] everything we were doing at the community,” Biggs said. From administrators on the front lines to architects specializing in health care facility design, USC professors have spent the spring,
with “COVID-19 sensitivity — what can I do to make this building safer or more COVID-resistant, whatever that entails?” He gave the class a list of 135 suggestions, culled from his research, of what could be done to make a facility more, as he terms it, “future-proof.” The suggestions range from the commonplace (hand sanitizer dispensers near doorways and places where food is served) to the creative (designing wide, attractive stairways that encourage staff and visitors to take the stairs instead of the elevator) to the near-sci-fi (infrared cameras in the lobby to measure temperatures; food-delivering robots that look like domestic animals). Much of the list is devoted to items that encourage a structure of small clusters of eight to 10 residents, socially isolated from other clusters and from the outside world.
"IT’S PREDICTED WE ARE GOING TO HAVE MORE AND MORE EPIDEMICS AHEAD OF US. DESIGNING WITH EPIDEMICS IN MIND IS WHAT YOU SHOULD EXPECT TO DO IN YEARS TO COME," SAYS USC LEONARD DAVIS DEAN PINCHAS COHEN. summer and fall teaching the next generation of leaders the latest information about how to design and manage senior living facilities during a pandemic, even as they live it themselves. The process, sometimes as messy and contradictory as the science about COVID, has also been deeply relevant to the moment at hand. In the USC School of Architecture, Professor Victor Regnier has given his students an unusual assignment this fall: to design a nursing home. And not just any nursing home, but one that would be particularly suited to life in the next pandemic. The students were asked to approach the project, he says,
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Most of the nursing homes in the United States were designed on models created in the 1950s, Regnier says. He encouraged students to look at so-called Green House models in the U.S., as well as typical nursing centers found in Northern European countries. The latter most often consist of small-scale units of around 400 square feet, with a private bedroom and bathroom for each resident. After their investigation, students were tasked with improving existing models to account for pandemic-driven requirements. That’s a good idea, because pandemics are not going away, says Pinchas Cohen, dean of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. In
a Zoom lecture he gave to Regnier’s students in September, Cohen said, “It’s predicted we are going to have more and more epidemics ahead of us. Designing with epidemics in mind is what you should expect to do in years to come.” Almost half of all deaths from COVID-19 have been in nursing homes and senior housing, he reminded the students. And that makes it critically important to consider not only the structure’s design, but the protocols as well. So, yes to outdoor spaces and social distancing, but nursing homes should also consider how to keep residents as healthy as possible by having them exercise and serving them high-quality food. Homes should also invest in quality, consistent disease testing. “You have to include testing,” Cohen said, “for residents and for staff.” Managing nursing home staff is particularly tricky in the time of COVID, experts agree. The expense of running these facilities means that as part of cost containment, staff members are often low-paid. As a result, nursing aides and staff often take jobs at two or three different homes, working double or triple shifts, six to seven days a week. As they move around, they can bring viruses with them. “That’s very dangerous,” says Ed Schneider, professor of gerontology, medicine and biology and USC Leonard Davis dean emeritus. He advises nursing homes to do everything in their power to ensure that staff work only for their facility — for example, by awarding pay raises and asking employees to sign legal documents to that effect. Biggs tried some of these measures at the Carrington, but he found it difficult to identify staff who might accept the raise but then work a shift at another nursing home anyway. Instead, the facility
Photos: courtesy of Victor Regnier
Left and previous page: Ærtebjerghaven, a senior living community in Odense, Denmark, includes health-promoting design features, including decentralized residential clusters; atriums that provide light, fresh air and safe outdoor access; singleoccupancy rooms with private bathrooms; and large, open common spaces that can be reconfigured for physical distancing.
invested in rigorous sanitation and distancing protocols, including extensive use of personal protective equipment. Over the summer, with those practices in place, 28 staff members tested positive for the virus, but not one of them transmitted their illness to a resident, Biggs says. Josh Johnson MAG ’09, a USC lecturer and COO of West Bay Senior Living, says that none of the rural facilities he owns or manages has had a single case of COVID, in part because each is the only facility in its town, so staff members were not working at multiple jobs. The facilities also shut down quickly when the pandemic hit and worked hard to institute best practices. Now, some are able to partially loosen restrictions, such as allowing residents to enjoy socially distanced meals. “Investing in PPE is the most important thing that most facilities have learned,” Johnson says, “and
the importance of protecting staff, and how to adapt if there is a crisis.” Facilities and their leadership will need to continue to adapt and remain vigilant. Many people talk about waiting for a vaccine, Schneider says—but even when there is one, COVID won't disappear overnight. “I don’t know what a postpandemic world will be like,” he says. One of the reasons the pandemic did not make further inroads at the Carrington when it arrived in April, Biggs says, was because of a critical early investment in PPE — and because of his students at USC. Early on in the winter term, he says, “a lot of my students wanted to discuss this virus from China.” As he talked about it with them, it occurred to him that the Chinese factories that produced PPE might have to shut down due to the virus. So, sometime in late February or early March, Biggs says that Carrington “went on a buying binge,” snapping up as
many masks and other items as the facility could manage to acquire. That equipment proved essential a few months later, when Carrington was able to snuff out its outbreak within weeks. Still, watching staff members test positive in the summer, and after testing negative himself despite falling ill with COVID-like symptoms at the end of April, Biggs says he will never discount the ability of this virus to wreak havoc. “We still have a healthy respect for this virus,” he says. “We don’t declare it over.” The stint at the Carrington was intended to be a yearlong return for Biggs to the front lines of senior living care; now, he is back in California as CEO of West Bay, which operates Carrington, and has stayed in touch with Carrington staff members. “There’s definitely a little patch that we all wear under the uniform, so to speak,” he says. “We were all there.”
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INT RG E NERAT IONA L By LOIS ALBERT ANGELO Illustration by BRIAN STAUFFER
R STAN D ING
When the world appears full of fear and conflict, conversations between younger and older people can produce mutual benefit and meaningful change.
ith the rise of COVID-19, the world has been held victim to an incredibly dangerous and lethal virus that has consequently left many stuck at home wondering when everything will return to normal — only to slowly realize that there may now be a new “normal.” Simultaneously, the current political climate in the United States has laid bare the issues of racism and discrimination that persist in places ranging from the highest levels of government to the local services we rely upon for assistance and support. Recent demonstrations surrounding the deaths of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd
and others at the hands of police officers highlight how people from all walks of life want to voice their deepest concerns and make a difference. At the same time, the global aging pyramid continues to shift into new and uncharted territory, where governments and public services must now evaluate how to assist the increasing population of older adults. In the midst of all of this, USC experts and students say intergenerational discussions are a powerful tool in a learning process that will help determine what our new normal looks like today and going forward.
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Overcoming Ageism In a time when intergenerational differences can quickly fuel the flames of conflict, many have taken advantage of unhealthy racial and age-related discourse, pitting older and younger generations against one another and relying on stereotypes to drive their story forward. One prominent narrative deals with the handling of the current climate-change crisis and the ever-shortening time frame to put in place the proper measures to avoid a global catastrophe. On one hand, younger adults may be under the presumption that voting trends among older adults are influenced by their lack of care for the future, given that older people will not have to live with the further consequences of global warming. Older adults, on the other hand, may believe that younger generations have no concern for them in the first place and vote solely out of self-interest. Ageism, described as the “most socially accepted form of prejudice” by the World Health Organization, presents another factor that needs to be unpacked in order for meaningful discussions to take place. While currently being tackled on academic and health care fronts, prejudice against older adults in the media has become more distinct during election seasons. Ageist stereotypes highlighting conservative values of older adults can easily dissuade younger generations from participating in conversations altogether. Additionally, some older adults may perceive millennials and members of Generation Z as being lazy, spoiled or egotistical, given the digital revolution and its prompting of an easier lifestyle. For instance, a “Dear Young People” ad that ran prior to the midterm elections in 2018 played upon a provocative and negative portrayal of older adults, showing their supposed lack of concern about gun control, climate change and other topical political issues adversely affecting the United States. While the advertisement acted as an eye-opening satirical warning, it’s important for all generations to properly dissect the implicit biases that are present throughout the lifespan. “Older adults have formed many of their opinions and attitudes in a different social time, when they may not have had much interaction with people of color and where there was not much time given to the narrative of racism and the impacts it has,” says Paul Nash, instructional associate professor of gerontology. “This does not mean that all older people are racist, but what it does mean is that attitudes are formed based on exposure and experience. These are changing and will continue to evolve, which makes it easier for those who have grown up in that period of change to appreciate the different perspectives.”
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Many in the gerontology community look to opportunities for intergenerational discussions to be a source of knowledge and understanding. “Surrounding the current Black Lives Matter movement, my family has been very receptive to the issues going on, but there have been many instances where I have found some opinions of theirs that do not generally hold well nowadays,” says Nilay Desai, a sophomore in human development and aging at the Leonard Davis School. “So my cousins and I have sat down and had civil discussions where we have been able to help [older family members] understand the issues.” Teaching Each Other At their core, intergenerational discussions are conversations between individuals. Sharing experiences across generations can be an incredibly powerful — and poignant — experience. “Having intergenerational discussions allows the exchange of diverse ideas from both parties and opportunities for collaboration in activism,” says USC Leonard Davis PhD in gerontology candidate Liz Avent. “Both parties can provide new perspectives and ideas. Intergenerational discussion can decrease ageism and generalizations and break stereotypes.” Intergenerational discussions nowadays can feel like a political minefield, and deciding the right time and place can be an equally stressful process. Avent emphasized that despite varying levels of racial allyship and exposure among the different generations, these conversations can be fruitful and can encourage slow yet beneficial change. “It’s important to choose the correct words and adjust your framing with those who may be reluctant in changing their opinion … for example, use ‘I’ statements rather than ‘you’ statements, because no one wants to feel like they are wrong or something is wrong with them,” Avent says. “However, it’s important to pick your battles and preserve your energy and mental health. Know when it’s time to end the discussion and accept that this person will not change their opinion on the issue.” This summer, USC students and faculty and members of the USC Emeriti Center engaged in timely conversations surrounding the Black Lives Matter movement and today’s political climate. Titled “An Intergenerational Perspective of What Matters,” the Zoom discussion covered a variety of topics, from understanding hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter and #DefundthePolice all the way to reflecting on protests and demonstrations of the past.
"HAVING INTERGENERATIONAL DISCUSSIONS ALLOWS THE EXCHANGE OF DIVERSE IDEAS FROM BOTH PARTIES," SAYS USC LEONARD DAVIS PHD IN GERONTOLOGY CANDIDATE LIZ AVENT.
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Janette Brown, assistant vice provost at the USC Emeriti Center and adjunct professor at the Leonard Davis School, allows her student workers to organize discussions about the current political climate with retired and current faculty and staff members, parents of students, and former Trojans. “It has been enlightening to watch the lightbulb go on with students and with retirees as they connect with one another and share,” Brown says. “They realize how similar they are. They have the same feelings, thoughts and worries. The more they share, the more they realize that both young and old can support one another in different ways.” Younger people — the digital natives — bring plenty of support and knowledge to the table. During the COVID crisis, the USC Student Gerontology Association — which has also made a commitment to prioritize and work with businesses whose owners are Black, Indigenous and People of Color — has created and maintained an intergenerational phone chain and held an online food drive for older adults who are ill. At the Emeriti Center, student workers have also presented on issues such as digital security, in addition to teaching older adults how to navigate social media properly—digesting terminology with a clear knowledge of what controversial hashtags truly mean, along with learning to use food delivery apps.
access to learn is a good first step in having that conversation. With COVID, while it obviously has a whole host of negative effects, it has really enlightened older adults who may have not been using technology that much. It has forced older adults to learn how to use some of it … which has been really beneficial.” From a scientific and statistical standpoint, intergenerational programs that, by definition, should be beneficial to older adults and youth have been proven to improve outcomes for participants, says PhD in gerontology candidate Carly Roman. Although past research has overwhelmingly focused on younger participants’ improved attitudes toward aging as a result of intergenerational programming, a 2019 literature review highlighted the benefits for older adults in these intergenerational connections. In addition to improved well-being, older adults have been able to express generativity—the feeling of contributing meaningfully to the well-being of others—and have experienced more positive views toward children, Roman explains.
Getting Involved, Together Learning from prior movements — such as Seneca Falls, Stonewall and Los Angeles—and hearing the narrative from older adults provide for a vast pool of knowledge and understanding for everyone, particularly younger generations organizing and participating in advocacy. "ATTITUDES ARE FORMED BASED ON EXPOSURE AND EXPERIENCE. “I was very active in the late sixties and early seventies, and THESE ARE CHANGING AND WILL CONTINUE TO EVOLVE," SAYS in fact led the medical compoINSTRUCTIONAL ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR PAUL NASH. nent to the demonstrations in Washington against the Vietnam Similarly, older adults eagerly provide personal tesWar,” says Edward Schneider, dean emeritus of the USC timony and experiences of advocacy movements from Leonard Davis School and a professor of gerontology, the past, shining a light not only on how history repeats medicine and biological sciences. “My kids are all aware itself, but also on improvements that have been made of that, and I think that they want to carry the torch and over time. do what’s right now. I’m not going to go out there and “[Older adults] can share experiences of what has demonstrate, but they can; it’s their turn.” worked, so that strategies can be built upon. YoungAs coronavirus cases continue to surge, older adults er people have their role, too,” Nash says. “It is much are often dissuaded from going out and participating in easier now than ever before to get information on the the protests, even if they may agree with the ideas being internet. Younger people can engage with older people advocated for. Combined with a lack of presence on the in dialogue and share experiences. Do it in a supportive internet, this can ultimately leave many older adults and not preachy way, and this is when reciprocal learnfeeling left behind or “wanting to leave [current issues] ing is at its best.” to younger generations,” as Leon Watts III, a learning Courtney Hutchinson, a senior in health and human and development specialist at the USC Fall Prevention sciences and a student worker with the Emeriti Center, Center, puts it. “When it comes to communicating to says that while you can’t force someone to view resourcolder adults about digital media … I know that sound es or watch videos online, “[If someone doesn’t] underbites are important,” he says. stand something … being able to provide people easy Watts and adjunct professor of gerontology Tameka
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Brown have been leading weekly Zoom meetings, providing a safe space for both students and faculty to freely discuss their thoughts and support the conversation encouraged by the Black Lives Matter movement. “The whole term ‘Defund the Police’ is a banner, and so is ‘Black Lives Matter’— it’s a flag. Some can hear that as an assault or an exclusionary term, as compared to when I hear it as everyone matters. Everybody matters … and you get people’s attention.” For those older adults who do choose to participate in the protests, such as Karen Koblitz, a retired associate professor from the Roski School of Art and Design, keeping everyone engaged and understanding the hardships of underserved communities is a necessary first step in having meaningful conversations. As someone who participated in the Vietnam War protests almost 52 years ago, Koblitz says, “It’s a really good thing to keep dialogues going, to keep our older faculty and community members engaged with the university through lectures and different programs. You never stop learning.” Nash notes that while the coronavirus presents new hurdles to jump over, there are plenty of opportunities for older adults to get involved in today’s activism. Organizations such as the Student Gerontology Association and the Emeriti Center have released comprehensive guides on ways for older adults to participate without directly being in contact with others through live demonstrations. “If we all adhere to guidelines, it makes things safer for everyone. Older adults can be involved in education. They can be involved in online narratives. They can be involved in community memory projects to evidence and drive change,” Nash says. “Older people can and are being involved in virtual and on-theground activism.” “We have a greater means and a greater responsibility to carry out this movement,” says neuroscience sophomore Helen Nguyen, a student worker at the Emeriti Center. “What I’ve learned is that we must keep fighting and we must continue these uncomfortable conversations if we want change, but we must also acknowledge the work our predecessors have done to get where we are now. It may seem like nothing has changed, but every small win matters.” These are certainly tumultuous times—politically, mentally and socially. However, when we take the first steps of listening to what other generations have to say from both experience and newfound knowledge, beneficial changes can occur. That’s how the conversation begins.
Bringing Generations Together At the USC Leonard Davis School, a number of intergenerational groups encourage conversation and cooperation between younger and older adults, including:
Andrus Volunteers The Andrus volunteers are a group of older adults who enrich the study of aging by offering their perspectives, time and support to USC Leonard Davis students.
Intergenerational Phone Chain Started by USC Leonard Davis PhD in Gerontology candidate Carly Roman, the phone chain alleviates social isolation in older adults by connecting them with student volunteers for conversation and friendship.
USC GlamourGals Chapter Volunteers from throughout USC provide senior living residents in the Los Angeles area with manicures, makeovers and companionship.
GeroTech SC This student-run service organization leads intergenerational technology workshops and hosts speaker events on aging and technology topics.
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or Caregiv f g n ers ri a C
Donna Benton says family caregivers need both our support and our advocacy. By Orli Belman
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From challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic to policy proposals introduced during a tense election year, the needs of family caregivers are making news. Expert Donna Benton, director of the USC Family Caregiver Support Center and research associate professor at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, says this recent national attention is long overdue.
“Twenty-three percent of caregivers say that just by being a family caregiver, their health has been made worse,” Benton says. “And why is that? Because they’re taking their relatives to the doctor, [but] they’re not going to the doctor themselves for their own health care because they may not have time to do it. They have to make a choice: I can either get my relative, who is sicker than I am, to the doctor, or I can go to work. Or I can use my sick time for me. Having to make those kinds of choices means that we really need to have better policies overall for long-term care services and supports in our communities.” Here are some of Benton’s suggestions for what caregivers need and how to bring about better supports, services and policies:
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Build in breaks for caregivers. “What we can do for caregiving is have policies that help relieve some of that care when we’re not able [to do the caregiving]— so that we don’t always have to make a choice between, say, a paycheck and caring for someone, going in sick to work and caring for our relative, being able to sleep and caring for our relative. So we need to have built-in policies that allow for breaks and allow for alternatives when we choose to have them there. All of those things may not be a direct [payment] to the caregiver, but they provide more options for care, for both the caregiver and the person they’re caring for.”
Use personal stories to advocate for caregivers. “People get scared about talking to a legislator or their elected official, and they say, ‘Well, I don’t know how to develop policies.’ Well, you know what? You don’t have to come up with the wording. What you can do is tell your struggle, tell your story, tell not just the struggles but also why you do what you do. And your story will be enough for the policymakers. They’re the ones who need to understand where the gaps are and to understand what your needs are. When you tell your story, all you have to add is, ‘And I wish that someone could do [XYZ].’ Don’t worry if it’s there or not right now. You just give out your wish list.”
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Address racial and socioeconomic health disparities. “The pandemic right now has really just removed that very thin veil that was covering up the disparities in health and in the social determinants of health in our society right now. Racism has always pushed our African-American, Black, Latino and other ethnic and racial groups to the margins in terms of how we’ve set up policies to help them with family care overall. Even when the in-home support services were set up, part of that was that there were not reimbursements for being a caregiver in terms of benefits that you could pay into Social Security or things like that. So people who worked in domestic work never could build up equity for themselves — financial equity. “And then when it comes to health disparities right now for the African-American community, diseases like Alzheimer’s are considerably higher among that population, and we’re more at risk because of other health disparities. And that all comes down to the fact that we’ve had health policies that have not been equal, and access to health care has not been equal. And so our older adult population might be sicker than other populations. And during this time of COVID, health disparities have just been shown through the fact that we have much higher rates of death and infection among the African-American population. … And we have to look at, you know, where people are living, and do we have enough medical facilities in the neighborhood? Do we have enough adult day cares and child care centers in the neighborhood? Do we have enough grocery stores in the neighborhood? And do we have the right types of food and fresh vegetables and things in the neighborhood?”
"Surprisingly, most people don’t even think of themselves [as caregivers]— they say ‘I’m the mother, I’m the daughter, I’m the son, or I’m the spouse,’ but they don’t put ‘and … I’m a caregiver.’"
Provide better support for dementia caregivers. “For dementia, the policies need to be there so that we get better diagnoses, so that we have more physicians who are trained to recognize and help family members connect with social services, because the physician isn’t going to be there to help with support groups. They’re not going to become the support group person. They’re not going to help them navigate, so other social services [have to]. But if they make the right referral to, say, an Alzheimer’s Association or AARP or a California Caregiver Resource Center system, that actually helps start the process so that the caregiver will have somebody who they can call whenever they need to. Over the course of many years, as the disease progresses, you’re going to need different training, different information.”
Address caregivers’ mental health needs. “Almost 50 percent of family caregivers express some form of depression or anxiety, and they could really benefit from being with somebody who really understands caregiving, who can talk to them and help them with their depression or anxiety. Being able to have enough support groups in the neighborhood, having adult day cares — all of those things you can really advocate for.”
Increase investment in social programs. “The more we invest in our social programs, [the less caregivers and families will need to] use the health care system. So it’s not that you have to suddenly find money; it’s there. It’s where we prioritize it and where we move it.”
Identify as a caregiver. “Surprisingly, most people don’t even think of themselves [as caregivers]— they say ‘I’m the mother, I’m the daughter, I’m the son, or I’m the spouse,’ but they don’t put ‘and … I’m a caregiver.’ So first you have to self-identify as a caregiver, because the issues are there. People are having to choose between going to work and putting the person they’re caring for at risk because they don’t have enough paid sick time, or they don’t have protected time for work. So once caregivers identify themselves, then they can ask for things like, ‘If I’m caring for someone, can I be more eligible for respite so that I can take a break and have somebody else come in just for safety, so that I can get a little more sleep, so that I can go to my own doctor’s appointments, so that I can just enjoy a meal without interruption for a little while?’ You can look for policies that help with education, so that you feel comfortable and confident in how you’re helping the caregiver.”
To learn more about Benton’s caregiving insights, listen to her interview on a recent episode of Lessons in Lifespan Health, a podcast from the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, at tinyurl.com/CaregivingBenton. If you are a California caregiver in need of support, call 1-800-540-4442 to connect with a California Caregiver Resource Center.
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Doctor & Humanitarian By Michelle McCarthy and Orli Belman
Tyler Evans ’02 has responded to disease outbreaks around the globe. He is now the Chief Medical Officer overseeing the COVID-19 response for the New York City Office of Emergency Management. 34 | VITALITY
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Tyler Evans has traveled around the world to serve populations in need, including Tanzania (left) and Sierra Leone (right, in protective gear during an Ebola outbreak) in 2015.
Dr. Tyler B. Evans ’02 has fought on the front lines of major infectious disease outbreaks around the globe. He promoted public health measures in South Africa at the height of the AIDS crisis, and he donned full protective gear in 110-degree heat to treat Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. So it was perhaps no surprise that when the novel coronavirus arrived in the United States, Evans moved across the country to become the Chief Medical Officer overseeing the COVID-19 response for the New York City Office of Emergency Management — leaving his pregnant wife in California as he did what he felt was the right thing to do (she later joined him in NYC, and in August she gave birth to a baby boy). The USC Leonard Davis School alumnus leads isolation, quarantine and risk-reduction programs, with a focus on vulnerable populations, in the nation’s most populous city. Earlier in the outbreak, he spent his days — and some nights — tending to patients at the makeshift hospital erected on the grounds of the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens. “I’m sitting here in a tennis field hospital with incredibly sick people, but they all have what we refer to as social determinants of health,” he said during a Zoom call with USC Leonard Davis Professor John Walsh earlier in the pandemic. “They all are people that historically don’t have great access to health care, so there are a
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lot of factors involved that have led them to be more vulnerable.” It was an experience at USC that set the course for Evans’ altruistic career. “We’d go down to the Mexican border with an organization and provide medical care once or twice a month,” he recalls. “That was definitely an eye-opener for me. USC really primed me and launched my academic career.” As a pre-med student, Evans was searching for a discipline that could bridge his interests in both the social and biomedical sciences. Gerontology was the perfect fit. “The Leonard Davis School was renowned for being the only school in the country with an actual undergraduate major,” he says. After graduation, he earned a master’s degree in public health from Columbia University and a medical degree from Tel Aviv University in Israel, then completed his residency in internal and preventive medicine/public health at the University of Arizona and the State University of New York at Buffalo. He continued his training and education for a multifaceted career path by earning a master’s degree in epidemiology from SUNY Buffalo and a fellowship in tropical medicine and hygiene from the prestigious London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine. The primary focus of all of his preparation was to fulfill his ambition of improving health and health care for the world’s most vulnerable populations.
Evans describes himself as a “humanitarian who just happens to be a doctor,” and he says his ultimate objective is to lend his voice to the voiceless across the globe: “They’re the ones who need help,” he says. His global outreach includes leading a program that focuses on building mental health capacity to treat victims of sexual and gender-based violence in the Democratic Republic of Congo, partnering with the 2018 Nobel Peace Prize laureate Dennis Mukwege, among others. He’s been involved in a number of other international missions, mostly in sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia and the Middle East, working with Doctors Without Borders, Partners in Health and other global organizations. In the U.S., he has served Native Americans through the Indian Health Service and worked at a large, federally qualified health center in NYC, where he established one of the first integrated programs for providing primary and mental health care to refugee asylum-seekers. He is one of the founders of the NYC Refugee and Asylee Health Coalition. Evans also served as the national director of infectious disease at the largest community-based HIV/AIDS organization in the nation. He was
"The Leonard Davis School was renowned for being the only school in the country with an
Photos: courtesy of Tyler Evans
actual undergraduate [gerontology] major." recently elected to the board of directors of the HIV Medical Association, one of the most prestigious organizations in the world representing the interests of the HIV/AIDS clinical and academic community. He has maintained his connection to USC and is currently an adjunct associate professor at the Leonard Davis School, where he plans to develop a seminar on humanitarian medicine. When he spoke to his former professor Walsh — whom Evans named as his favorite instructor at the school — he imparted a message to students: "You’ve got to find ways where your contribution is not just meaningful to you [alone]. ... [W]e also have to ensure that we’re giving back to society when we’re doing these internships or whatnot. So finding something that might not be as glamorous but that could truly be meaningful and helpful is good. You might be creating a database or code, or helping to develop infrastructure. A lot of the developments are not as sexy and cool and exciting as people think they are. But all of those parts ultimately end up leading to our ability to save lives.”
John Walsh Interviews "Impact Maker" Evans Back in May, Tyler Evans joined Professor John Walsh via Zoom for an “Impact Makers” discussion on the current pandemic, global health and how students can best serve populations in need: On how we were not prepared for COVID-19: “Folks in public health, especially in the communicable disease world, knew that the greatest sort of threat to society was not necessarily going to be war; it was going to be a microbial onslaught. And if the infrastructure is there, I’m not saying it’s not bad, but the risk is definitely mitigated. And we were not there. I mean, we’re getting better now, but we were not ready.” On how we are all in this together: “I think, hopefully, it will kind of bring us all together—more solidarity across the world to better understand that we are really all in this together. Despite the fact that the term is a little clichéd, I think that if people really listen to what that means, they will grasp onto it and really understand [that while] we focus so much on differences, the reality is we really are all potentially impacted by this.” On the importance of giving back and finding meaning in one's work: “It’s so important that throughout your career—whether it’s in medicine or public health or whatever field you decide—you just try to do the right thing and lead your career with your moral compass, and ultimately try to impact populations that need it the most. I assure you that ultimately, your life, both professionally and personally, will be very rich and meaningful.” To watch the full discussion, visit tinyurl.com/TylerEvansUSC.
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NOTES
IN THE FIELD —
An Unprecedented Internship
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Q: Before the pandemic, what did a typical day look like for you at Kingsley Manor? What activities were you involved in at the facility? A: Before COVID-19, I spent the majority of my internship interacting [with the residents] and conducting activities with them. I had my lunch and dinner with residents in the communal dining room; I would visit some of the residents in their rooms and enjoy a movie and coffee. I was in charge of helping the residents with technology. The
Photo: Beth Newcomb
While most USC Leonard Davis students had their internships pivot to a virtual setting due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Nelson Rubio Argueta’s internship site, Kingsley Manor Retirement Community in Los Angeles, was also his home. Rubio Argueta, who completed his Master of Arts in Aging Services Management degree this past summer, discussed his unique experience and what it meant to him to help Kingsley Manor residents during such an extraordinary time. He spoke to Beth Newcomb as he wrapped up his residential internship.
“We must be able to advocate for residents, but also let their voices be heard.”
main focus of this internship is for students to interact and form relationships with residents. It provides a unique insight into what it’s like to be a resident in a senior housing facility. Q: Since the start of the pandemic, what kinds of things have you been involved in to address loneliness, facilitate physical distancing and so on among residents? A: At Kingsley Manor, how we can create opportunities to help residents interact with others and provide coping skills to maintain good mental health is a daily topic. Currently, we are using a lot of online video call platforms, such as Zoom and Skype, to allow residents to stay in communication with their family members and friends. We are delivering meals to their rooms to assure that they maintain safe distancing measures when eating, since mealtimes are when residents [would ordinarily] interact the most, in the communal dining room. We are also providing individual activities and wellness packets with magazines, coloring pages, simple workout routines, etc. delivered to their rooms, among other things. I have taken advantage of the free museum tours offered by various museums and show them to the residents. Technology has been the number one tool to ease the burden of social isolation. Q: How did you first become interested in gerontology and senior living?
my current preceptor, Shaun Rushforth [MS ’08, executive director of Kingsley Manor]. During this class, I was very surprised to see the passion of my preceptor and [to learn] that he’d also completed a live-in internship at Kingsley Manor. After I graduated with a bachelor’s in public health, I knew I wanted to get a master’s, but I wasn’t sure what subject to choose. I remembered this class with my preceptor, and I emailed him for an informational interview. He accepted, and I came and shadowed him the entire day. That day, there were residents in the garden doing an exercise class, people in the dining room having coffee, and others hanging out by the flowers. Seeing those things changed my view on senior housing; it made me want to live here. That day, I asked my preceptor if the internship was still available, and I decided to apply to the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology. … I could not be any happier with my experience. Q: How do you think this experience will shape your career going forward? A: This experience has taught me that working in senior housing requires professionals to be able to adapt and be creative when new challenges arise. Every day is different, and we are working with a vulnerable population that we must protect. [We need to] ensure that they are having a good quality of life. We must be able to advocate for residents, but also let their voices be heard.
A: I became interested in gerontology after taking an elective course on social gerontology during my undergrad program at Cal State LA. That class was actually taught by
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Linda Wong (left) and Lisa Wong ’89
Lisa Wong ’89, and her sister, Linda Wong, recently created an endowed research fund dedicated to the biology of aging and a better understanding of the diseases of aging. Lisa fondly remembers her days as a student worker in the USC Leonard Davis School’s Development Office in the late 1980s. When she and Linda recently retired—from careers in law enforcement and higher education, respectively—they began looking for a way to give back. Because both of their parents passed away due to diseases of aging, the sisters wanted to help Leonard Davis School scientists make discoveries that may lead to the prevention or treatment of potentially deadly or debilitating diseases such as cancer, vascular and heart disease, diabetes and stroke.
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“We are excited to help contribute to important scientific discoveries that will help people live longer and healthier lives well into their old age,” they said. “We are happy to honor the memory of our parents by having this endowment fund permanently bear their name.” The Cheong and Mui Wong Endowed Research Fund is the first of its kind at the Leonard Davis School. Not only did the sisters create the named endowment fund, but they also plan to continue to further support the Leonard Davis School via their estate plans. Lisa’s and Linda’s generosity will make a difference in the lives of aging individuals and their families in perpetuity. To learn more about how to make a difference with your philanthropy or via your estate, please contact the Development Office at (213) 740-1361. — D.E.
Photos: Steve Cohn, Danny Turner
Sisters’ Gifts Support Research in Biology of Aging
Hanson-Thorell Awardees to Study Opioids, Brain Injuries Two USC Leonard Davis faculty members won 2020 Hanson-Thorell Research Awards for their proposals to advance understanding of the opioid epidemic and traumatic brain injuries. Assistant Professors Jessica Y. Ho and Andrei Irimia will each receive $25,000 in funding for one-year pilot projects. Ho will explore direct and indirect consequences of the opioid epidemic on older adults, including overdose trends, painkiller availability and older adults caring for grandchildren. “The contemporary American drug overdose epidemic has enormous relevance for older adults,” said Ho, noting that drug overdose death rates for adults 65 and over increased by 250% between 1995 and 2017. Irimia will examine the risk of cognitive decline after mild traumatic brain injuries (mTBIs), also known as concussions. He plans to use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to focus on a small region of the brainstem called the locus coeruleus— which is where TBI-related neurodegeneration has been found to first appear—and will look for correlation between signal intensity and cognitive decline in patients who have suffered a mild TBI. “These findings can help determine if MRI scans of the brain could be useful in determining which older TBI victims are most at risk for cognitive decline and most in need of early interventions,” Irimia said. The Hanson-Thorell Family Research Award supports junior USC Leonard Davis School faculty members as they explore new avenues of research and aims to provide a foundation for further grant support for their work. The awards are supported in part by USC Leonard Davis Board of Councilors Chair Shari Thorell and her husband, Bob, and originated with funding from Shari’s father and former Board of Councilors Chair Al Hanson. — O.B.
New Biology of Aging Research Fund Provides Immediate Support Over Five Years Kathleen Gilmore, one of the newest members of the USC Leonard Davis School Board of Councilors, recently helped create a research fund dedicated to the study of the biology of aging. Gilmore, who was recently named chairman and president in addition to being principal at Clifford Swan Investment Counselors in Pasadena, was inspired by many of the school’s newest and youngest faculty recruits. She was particularly taken with the research into female differences in aging pioneered by Assistant Professor Bérénice Benayoun. Gilmore’s $100,000 gift will provide immediate support for faculty members studying the biology of aging, with $20,000 given each year over a five-year period. Awardees will be able to use this vital support to gather necessary pilot data to compete for larger, prestigious National Institutes of Health grants. The first awardee for this support was Gilmore’s initial inspiration, Benayoun. “I’m pleased to help young, brilliant Leonard Davis School scientists like Benayoun realize their potential and give them a head start on their path to a successful research career,” Gilmore says. For her part, Benayoun says she feels “honored and excited to have inspired this gift to the school! This award will be invaluable to help support my lab’s research into sex differences in aging — an understudied topic with huge consequences for the way we think about lifelong health and disease.” If you would like information on how you can help early career scientists in their pioneering research at the Leonard Davis School, please call the Development Office at (213) 740-1361. — D.E.
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The Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center was dedicated on February 12, 1973. USC Vice President Thomas P. Nickell Jr. (left), Los Angeles Mayor Tom Bradley, and Gerontology Center Director James E. Birren (right) marked the occasion with the placement of a plaque and time capsule to be unearthed in the new millennium. The center became the campus home of the USC Leonard Davis School upon its founding in 1975, with Birren serving as the school’s first dean.
Photo: University of Southern California History Collection
MAKING HISTORY
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The Dean’s Circle When you donate to the USC Leonard Davis School, you partner with us in the pursuit of excellence. Your support allows students to explore and engage further in their studies, advances our work to provide outreach and advocacy for older adults, and helps provide faculty scientists the best resources to conduct groundbreaking research. Please show your commitment to our students and mission by making a gift of $500 or
more to the USC Leonard Davis School, and join the Dean’s Circle today.
Photo: Stephanie Kleinman
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