Contact: Alka Gupta, 718-488-1015
LIU-Brooklyn Will Partner with SUNY Health Science Center
To Launch Ethnogerontology Center in Brooklyn
Brooklyn, NY--An initiative to make Brooklyn a leading center for graduate and postgraduate study in ethnogerontology (the study of the role of culture and ethnicity in human development) is underway, thanks to a $540,000 Career Leadership Award from the National Institute on Aging to Psychology Professor Carol Magai of Long Island University's Brooklyn Campus. Her colleague, Professor Carl Cohen of SUNY Health Science Center, is co-leader of the new project.
According to Magai, a Brooklyn resident who is also director of the Center for Studies of Ethnicity and Human Development, a Brooklyn Campus-based institute: "Our goal is two-fold: to encourage research on aging and to enhance the training capabilities of faculty at two of Brooklyn's largest academic institutions, LIU and SUNY HSC."
Brooklyn is one of the most ethnically diverse communities in the country. Statistics show that the ethnic population over 65 years old is growing faster than other adult groups as a whole and underrepresented minority individuals are projected to represent up to 25% of older adults by the year 2030. "Given its diversity, Brooklyn is the ideal location for research on aging and culture," says Magai, adding that Brooklyn has been an understudied and underserved area for many years.
The ethnogerontology effort is a five-year interdisciplinary dual-campus program. Over the course of the grant, Magai and her co-investigators hope to focus on the impact of emotion and emotion expression on the health of older individuals, as well as on the impact of dementia on patients and their families.
The other goals of the grant include offering research preceptorships to junior to mid-career faculty who want to conduct research on aging issues, and attracting master's level students in psychology and other life sciences into the study of gerontology. A group of senior faculty will serve as mentors. Students will receive mentorship, career guidance, research training experience, a stipend, and other assistance towards preparing for advanced degree programs in gerontology.
Another major objective is to establish a Summer Institute in Ethnogerontology that will provide health care workers in the Brooklyn community with access to courses and certificate programs in aging, ethnogerontology and the delivery of culturally sensitive health care. Beverly Lyons of the Brooklyn Campus, who holds advanced degrees in nutrition, gerontology and policy and program administration in social work, will develop and administer the institute. She is an assistant professor of public administration, whose most recent book is titled Sociocultural Differences Between American-born and West-Indian-born Elderly Blacks: A Comparative Study of Health and Social Service Use (Garland Publishing, 1997).
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