DHHS Secretary Donna E. Shalala has appointed of four new members to the National Institute on Aging’s (NIA) National Advisory Council on Aging (NACA), which advises the secretary on the conduct and support of biomedical, social and behavioral research, training, health information dissemination and other programs involving aging and the diseases and needs of older people.
Dennis A. Ausiello, M.D., the Physician-in-Chief of Medical Services at Massachusetts General Hospital and both a professor of Clinical Medicine and Director of the MD-PhD Program at Harvard Medical School.
A graduate of Harvard College and the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, Dr. Ausiello completed research fellowships as a surgeon at the Laboratory of Kidney and Electrolyte Metabolism, National Heart and Lung Institute at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and as a NIH Research Fellow in Medicine at Massachusetts General Hospital. He received postdoctoral clinical training as a Clinical Fellow in Medicine (Nephrology) at Massachusetts General Hospital and a Research Fellow in Medicine at Harvard Medical School.
Since 1976 Dr. Ausiello has held academic appointments at Harvard Medical School, including the Jackson professorship of Clinical Medicine for the past three years. He has also served for four years on the National Diabetes, Digestive and Kidney Diseases Advisory Council and since 1995 on the Editorial Board of the Proceedings of the Association of American Physicians. He received the Dr. O. H. Perry Prize at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine, and NIH Merit awards both in 1988 and 1996. Dr. Ausiello is a member of the Institute of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences.
Dr. Ausiello’s research interests include the mechanisms of action of vasopressin, hormone receptor-adenylyl cyclase interactions, regulation of membrane protein trafficking, ion transport, and guanine nucleotide regulatory protein function. He has particular interests in cystic fibrosis and Alzheimer’s disease.
John C. D., Cambier, Ph.D., Ida and Cecil Green Professor and Chairman of the Department of Immunology at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center and at the National Jewish Medical and Research Center.
Dr. Cambier, a research immunologist, has been a member of the NIA Board of Scientific Counselors since 1994 and an NIH grantee since 1983. He earned an undergraduate degree from Southwest Missouri State University, and both a master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Iowa. He completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Dallas in 1977. He has served on the faculties of Duke University Medical Center and the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center.
His research interests include molecular mechanisms underlying immune system development and function, and the basis of immunosenescence. His work is focused on mechanisms of transmembrane signal transduction.
Ilene C. Siegler, Ph.D., M.P.H., Professor, Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences at Duke University Medical Center.
Dr. Siegler, a psychologist, brings research expertise to the council in the areas of the psychology of adult development and aging, longitudinal studies, developmental health psychology, behavioral medicine, behavioral epidemiology, women’s health, and personality predictors of coronary heart disease. She earned an undergraduate degree in psychology from the University of Michigan, and both her master’s and doctoral degrees in developmental psychology from Syracuse University. She completed postdoctoral training in the psychology of aging at Duke University. In addition, she received a master of public health degree in epidemiology from the University of North Carolina.
Since 1982, Dr. Siegler has served as an ad hoc member on nearly a dozen NIH review groups, including the NIA Board of Scientific Counselors. She also served on numerous review panels and committees on aging issues including the Committee to Study Age-60 Retirement for Airline Pilots at the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine, and the Expert Panel on Airline Pilot Age 60 Study, for the Civil Aeromedical Institute at the Federal Aviation Administration.
Dr. Siegler has been a member of many editorial boards including those of Health Psychology, Psychology and Aging, Experimental Aging Research, Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences.
Phyllis M. Wise, Ph.D., Professor and Chair, Department of Physiology, College of Medicine, University of Kentucky.
Dr. Wise received her undergraduate degree from Swarthmore College and her master’s degree and doctorate from the University of Michigan. After completing a postdoctoral fellowship at the University of Michigan in 1974 she served as a research associate and adjunct assistant professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine. Dr. Wise’s other faculty appointments have included professor in the Department of Physiology at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, and visiting scientist in the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology at the University of Goettingen, in West Germany.
Since 1980, Dr. Wise has been a National Institute on Aging (NIA) grantee. She received a National Institutes of Health (NIH) MERIT Award to study neuroendocrine and neurochemical function during aging. Her research interests include the endocrine and neurochemical mechanisms during the aging process, cellular and molecular basis of circadian rhythm generation, and the neuroprotective actions of estrogen during aging and after injury.
She has received numerous awards for her research, including the National Institute on Aging’s Nathan W. Shock Award for outstanding research in aging; the Solomon Berson Award from the American Physiological Society; and the Robert Kleemeier Award from the Gerontological Society of America. She is a member of many scientific advisory committees, including the Wisconsin Regional Primate Center Scientific Advisory Board, the Advisory Committee of the Claude Pepper Center at Bowman-Gray School of Medicine, and the Councils of the American Physiological Society and the Endocrine Society.
Dr. Wise is the Associate Editor of the Journals of Gerontology and Biological Sciences and continues to serve as a member of other editorial boards.
NIA, a component of the National Institutes of Health, is the lead federal agency supporting and conducting biomedical, social, and behavioral research and training related to aging and the special needs of older people.
