Elder Justice Roundtable: Participant Profiles
Ann Wolbert Burgess, R.N., D.N.Sc., C.S., F.A.A.N., is a Professor of Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing at the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. She received her bachelor's and doctoral degrees from Boston University and her master's degree from the University of Maryland. Dr. Burgess, with Lynda Lytle Holmstrom, cofounded one of the first hospital-based crisis intervention programs for rape victims at Boston City Hospital in the mid-1970s. One of the current outcomes of the work with rape victims has been the development of the forensic nursing role of Sexual Assault Nurse Examiner (SANE). Dr. Burgess has conducted many projects. She has been principal investigator of research projects on the use of children in pornography; heart attack victims and return to work; sexual homicide and patterns of crime scenes; possible linkages between sexual abuse and exploitation of children, juvenile delinquency and criminal behavior; children as witnesses in child sexual abuse trials; AIDS, ethics and sexual assault; and infant kidnapping. Dr. Burgess has written 9 textbooks, 12 books, coauthored more than 135 articles/chapters, and 6 monographs. Her current research is on patterns of trauma in elderly rape victims and the motivation of gerophiles. Dr. Burgess maintains a private clinical practice in Massachusetts. In addition, she serves as an expert witness in criminal and civil suits for the government, plaintiff, and defense. Dr. Burgess has served on the American Nurses Association (ANA) Council of Specialists in Psychiatric Mental Health Nursing Executive Committee, the ANA Cabinet of Nursing Research, and the American Academy of Nursing's Governing Council. She has served as chair of the first Advisory Council to the National Center for the Prevention and Control of Rape of the National Institute of Mental Health, 1976-80. Also, she was a member of the 1984 U.S. Attorney General's Task Force on Family Violence and was a member of the planning committee for the 1985 Surgeon General's Symposium on Violence. She served on the National Institute of Health National Advisory Council for the Center for Nursing Research, 1986-88, and was a member of the 1990 Adolescent Health Advisory Panel to the Congress of the United States Office of Technology Assessment. She was chair of the National Institutes of Health AIDS and Related Research Study Section (ARRR 6), 1992-94. In addition, Dr. Burgess was elected to the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine in October 1994 and chaired the 1996 National Research Council's Task Force on Violence Against Women. Currently, she serves as the research partner to the National Sexual Assault Resource Center that is directed by the Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape in Enola, Pennsylvania, and funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Kerry Burnight, Ph.D., received her doctorate in Gerontology and Public Policy from the University of Southern California's Andrus Gerontology Center. For the past 11 years, Dr. Burnight has been conducting gerontological research for academic, private, and government organizations. She is currently an Assistant Clinical Professor at the University of California-Irvine, College of Medicine, where she conducts research on the abuse and neglect of older adults. Dr. Burnight also served on the faculty of the California Medical Training Center, where she helped develop and teach courses on the recognition, reporting, and documentation of elder abuse. Dr. Burnight is coinvestigator of a project that provides interdisciplinary medical evaluation and consultation to the social service, law enforcement, and legal communities.
Marie-Therese Connolly, J.D., a Senior Trial Counsel in the Civil Division, is the coordinator of the Department of Justice Nursing Home Initiative. In that capacity, she coordinates the Department's internal efforts and works closely with the Department of Health and Human Services and other national, State, and local healthcare, public safety, regulatory, social service, and law enforcement entities on a wide variety of nursing home and elder justice-related issues and cases. Ms. Connolly joined the Department in 1986 following a clerkship with the Honorable Paul H. Roney of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Before coordinating the Nursing Home Initiative, Ms. Connolly handled a variety of primarily civil fraud cases; most recently she was lead counsel in United States ex rel. Zissler v. University of Minnesota, settled in late 1998 for $32 million, which made new law in several areas.
Carmel Bitondo Dyer, M.D., graduated from Baylor College of Medicine in 1988. She is board certified in Internal Medicine and Geriatrics and has been the Director of the Geriatrics Program at the Harris County Hospital District since completing her postgraduate training in 1993. She is currently an Associate Professor of Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine, and her clinical interests include care of the elderly poor, elder mistreatment, dementia, delirium, depression, and geriatric assessment. Her research and publications are in the area of elder neglect and the interdisciplinary approach to abused or neglected elders. Dr. Dyer is co-director of the Texas Elder Abuse and Mistreatment Institute.
Carl Eisdorfer, Ph.D., M.D., received his doctorate from New York University, his M.D. from Duke University, and his Certificate in Health Systems Management from Harvard University. He directed the Duke University Center for Aging and Human Development and the Institute on Aging at the University of Washington, where he also chaired the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences. He has served as Senior Scholar in Residence at the IOM of the National Academy of Science in Washington, D.C., and President and CEO of Montifore Medical Center in New York. In 1986, he joined the faculty at the University of Miami, where he is Professor and Chairman of the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and Director of the University of Miami Center on Adult Development and Aging. He has served on the Federal Council on Aging, the Council of the N.I.A., and the Commission to Restructure the V.A. Health Systems for the 21st Century . He is the recipient of numerous awards for his work in aging and mental health, including the Allied Signal Award, the Founder Award of the Alzheimer's Disease Society, and the Menniger Award of the American College of Physicians. Dr. Eisdorfer has served as President of several national professional organizations, including the American Society on Aging, the Gerontological Society of America, and the American Federation for Aging Research. He is the author and editor of more than 300 research and professional publications, principally on aging, healthcare policy, Alzheimer's disease, psychoneuroimmunology, and the impact of caregiving for chronically ill relatives.
Charles W. "Bill" Gambrell, Jr., J.D., received his B.S. degree in Mathematics from the University of South Carolina in 1972 and his J.D. degree from the University of South Carolina School of Law in 1977. Mr. Gambrell is Assistant Deputy Attorney General in the Office of the Attorney General for South Carolina and the Director of the South Carolina Medicaid Fraud Control Unit. Prior to joining the Attorney General's Office in 1983, Mr. Gambrell was a partner in the law firm of King and Gambrell, P.A., in Columbia, South Carolina. Mr. Gambrell is also Vice President of the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units, Chairman of the Patient Abuse Working Group of the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units, and an editor of A Guide for Investigating and Prosecuting Patient Abuse, Neglect and Mistreatment in Nursing Homes, published by the National Association of Medicaid Fraud Control Units. Mr. Gambrell has served on a number of law enforcement committees and has prosecuted "white collar" criminal cases, violent crimes, and drug offenses during his career at the Attorney General's office.
William E. Hauda II, M.D., is an Attending Emergency Physician at INOVA Fairfax Hospital, Department of Emergency Medicine. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin Medical School in May of 1992 and completed his residency in Emergency Medicine at Johns Hopkins University in 1995. He is an Assistant Clinical Professor, Department of Emergency Medicine, George Washington University School of Medicine. He holds an appointment as Clinical Instructor, Department of Pediatrics, University of Virginia, School of Medicine. Currently, he is the Operational Medical Director for the Fairfax County Police Helicopter Unit and a Medical Examiner for the City and County of Fairfax, Virginia.
Catherine Hawes, Ph.D., is a Professor in the Department of Health Policy and Management, School of Rural Public Health at Texas A&M University Health Science Center. She is also Director of the Southwest Rural Health Research Center at Texas A&M. Dr. Hawes has 25 years of experience in research, teaching, and policymaking at the Myers Research Institute, Research Triangle Institute, Duke University, and as director of a State legislative commission, Medicaid fraud investigator, and staff investigator for the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging. She has led research projects in all areas of long-term care. Current projects include one to examine the investigation of complaints about nursing home quality and to make recommendations to healthcare Financing Administration (HCFA) and the States about how to improve the process (HCFA); a study of how to prevent abuse and neglect of nursing home residents (HCFA); a study of State use of enforcement remedies to ensure nursing home quality (Retirement Research Foundation); and a study on quality measurement in assisted living and residential care (AHRQ). Some of her prior studies include a National Study of Assisted Living for the Frail Elderly (ASPE); Evaluation of the Senior Companion Homebound Elderly Demonstrations (ACTION); Analysis of the Effect of Regulation on Board and Care Home Quality (DHHS/ASPE); and Development of the Nursing Home Resident Assessment Instrument-RAI/MDS (HCFA). Within these projects, Dr. Hawes' work has focused on such topics as assessment, quality measurement, reimbursement, quality assurance, regulatory effectiveness, and the relationship between cost and quality. She has published widely on these topics in such journals as the Gerontologist, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society; the American Journal of Public Health; Journals of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences; Age and Aging; Generations; Journals of Gerontology: Medical Sciences; and the Journal of the American Medical Association. She has also served on a number of national advisory committees, including the Institute of Medicine's Committee on Nursing Home Regulation.
Candace Heisler, J.D., was a San Francisco Assistant District Attorney for more than 25 years prior to her retirement last July. As a prosecutor, she headed the Domestic Violence Unit that oversaw the prosecution of domestic violence and elder abuse cases. She has edited four judicial curricula and a prosecution manual on domestic violence cases. She has authored a number of articles that have been published in The Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect and in various publications produced by the California District Attorney's Association. Also, she has helped develop four telecourses on domestic violence and elder abuse for California law enforcement and courses on domestic violence for law enforcement first responders and investigators. She is developing new courses for Field Training Officers and Dispatchers. She teaches courses in domestic violence and elder abuse for California law enforcement, Victim Witness Program advocates, and prosecutors. In addition, she is an officer for the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, a member of the California Violence Against Women STOP Task Force; has served on the Texas Medical Association Blue Ribbon Panel on family violence; and has received many awards, including the California District Attorney's Association Career Achievement Award and the California Governor's Victim Services Award. She is also an Assistant Adjunct Professor of Law at the University of California's Hastings College of Law.
David R. Hoffman, J.D., is a graduate of the University of Pittsburgh and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law. He is currently an Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania. He prosecutes healthcare fraud matters, both civilly and criminally. Mr. Hoffman brought the first balance billing action against a physician, the first healthcare RICO prosecution in the district, and has been successful in prosecuting physicians, pharmacists, drug manufacturers, and nursing homes. Mr. Hoffman has successfully prosecuted large nursing home chains and several long-term care facilities for failure to provide adequate care to their residents. These prosecutions resulted in Consent Orders mandating, among other requirements, corporate compliance programs, diabetes monitoring and nutrition, and wound care standards that must be met and which are monitored by the United States Attorney's Office. Mr. Hoffman has also successfully prosecuted quality of care cases in the boarding home arena. He was awarded the 1996 Director's Award from the United States Department of Justice Executive Office for United States Attorneys for his work in protecting the elderly from abuse and neglect. He also was awarded the 1999 Department of Health and Human Services Inspector General's Integrity Award. Prior to joining the United States Attorney's Office, Mr. Hoffman served as Chief Counsel for the Pennsylvania Department of Aging. Before joining the Department of Aging, Mr. Hoffman was an Assistant District Attorney in Philadelphia and also served as judicial law clerk to the Honorable Anthony J. Scirica in State and Federal court. He is a lecturer in Law/Clinical Instructor for Temple University's School of Law and has lectured at the University of Pennsylvania School of Law and Villanova University School of Law on healthcare issues affecting the elderly.
Ian Hood, M.D., J.D., graduated from medical school in New Zealand and completed a residency in pathology at McMaster University in Ontario, Canada, becoming board certified in Anatomic and Clinical Pathology in the United States and Anatomic and General Pathology in Canada. He trained in Forensic Pathology at the Wayne County Medical Examiner's Office in Detroit, Michigan, and after becoming board certified in that specialty joined the staff there. He is currently a Coroner's Pathologist for Chester, Montgomery, and Bucks Counties in Pennsylvania and the Deputy Medical Examiner in Philadelphia. Dr. Hood has also graduated from Temple Law School and is a member of the Bar in Pennsylvania. He has participated in several investigations of neglect and abuse of elderly nursing home residents, including prosecutions for homicide by caregivers. He has also been active in the monitoring and prevention of deaths of the elderly and infirm from heat stress in periods of hot weather. He is a member of the Pennsylvania Attorney General's Medicolegal Advisory Board on Elder Abuse and Neglect.
Mark S. Lachs, M.D., M.P.H., is a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania and the New York University School of Medicine. He completed a residency in Internal Medicine at the hospital of the University and is board certified in Internal Medicine. In 1988, he became a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar at Yale where he also earned a master of public health degree in Chronic Disease Epidemiology and added qualifications in Geriatric Medicine from the American Board of Internal Medicine. He spent 4 years on the Yale Faculty before coming to Cornell to lead the Geriatrics Program. Currently, Dr. Lachs is the Director of Geriatrics for the New York Presbyterian Health System, co-chief of the Division of Geriatric Medicine and Gerontology at the Weill Medical College of Cornell University, and an Associate Professor of Medicine at the college. Dr. Lachs' major area of interest is the disenfranchised elderly, and he has published widely in the areas of elder abuse and neglect, adult protective services, the measurement of functional status, ethics, and the financing of healthcare. He has lectured internationally on these topics. His honors and awards include an American College of Physicians Teaching and Research Scholarship, a National Institute on Aging Academic Leadership Award, and a Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholarship, the country's preeminent career development award in aging. He is also the recipient of ROI funding from the National Institutes of Health to study the impact of crime on the physical and emotional health of older adults. In January, Dr. Lachs became the first director of the Cornell Center for Aging Research and Clinical Care (CARCC), a multidisciplinary group of scientists, clinicians, and educators who seek to speed scientific advances from bench to bedside, teach geriatric medicine to physicians-in-training at all levels, and create a trans-institutional community of gerontologists at Cornell. His service includes membership on an Institute of Medicine Committee to address the training needs of health professionals in family violence and participation in the AMA/ABA joint conference on family violence. He also sits on the board of the American Federation for Aging Research. Dr. Lachs' greatest passion is practicing and teaching geriatric medicine in the outpatient, hospital, long-term care, and housecall setting. He maintains a practice at the Irving Wright Center on Aging, a community-based ambulatory care practice for older adults that he founded with Dr. Ronald Adelman in 1998. A unique social experiment intended to provide seamless medical and supportive services for older people, it is also home to the Burden Center for the Aging and the Hebrew Home for the Aged's ElderServe Program. He and Dr. Adelman also lead a student interest group in Geriatric Medicine at Cornell.
Erik Lindbloom, M.D., M.S.P.H., is an Assistant Professor of Family Medicine at the University of Missouri-Columbia. Dr. Lindbloom received his M.D. from Northwestern University and his residency training from the University of California-San Diego. He recently completed a 3-year fellowship in geriatric medicine and research at the University of Missouri. He is currently collaborating with the State of Missouri's Division of Aging on a study estimating the incidence of fatal elder mistreatment in the State. His areas of interest include elder mistreatment, older adults with poor access to healthcare, and evidence-based medicine. He serves on the Board of Directors of the North American Primary Care Research Group and the Research Committee of the Society of Teachers of Family Medicine. Dr. Lindbloom has co-authored a recently published book, Challenging Diagnoses, and he is an Assistant Editor for the Journal of Family Practice. He is a practicing family physician and geriatrician at a federally qualified health center in Columbia, Missouri.
Patricia J. McFeeley, M.D., received her undergraduate education at Ohio Wesleyan University, Delaware, Ohio, and earned her M.D. degree from the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, Albuquerque, New Mexico. She completed her residency in pathology at the University of New Mexico School of Medicine, with 1 year spent in specialty training in pediatric pathology at Denver Children's Hospital. She completed postdoctoral fellowship training in forensic pathology at the Office of the Medical Investigator, where she is currently Assistant Chief Medical Investigator for the State of New Mexico. Dr. McFeeley is certified in anatomic and forensic pathology by the American Board of Pathology. She is the immediate past President of the American Academy of Forensic Sciences. She serves on the board of the New Mexico chapter of the National Sudden Infant Death Syndrome Foundation and belongs to the National Association of Medical Examiners (past board of directors member), the American Medical Association, and the American Society of Clinical Pathologists. She was a member of the Pathology Study Panel of the NICHD Cooperative Epidemiologic Study of SIDS Risk Factors and was a reviewer for the Chicago Infant Mortality Study. Dr. McFeeley has been a consultant to the Centers for Disease Control Medical Examiner/Coroner Information Sharing Project and is currently a member of the United Network for Organ Sharing (UNOS) Medical Examiner and Coroner Task Force. She is a sponsor/member of the New Mexico Maternal Mortality Review (MMR) and the Child Fatality Review (CFR). Her research interests include pediatric forensic pathology, including Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS), Time of Death, and Death Scene Investigation.
Laura Mosqueda, M.D., is a board-certified geriatrician and family physician. Dr. Mosqueda is the Director of Geriatrics at the University of California-Irvine, College of Medicine, where she is also an Associate Professor of Clinical Family Medicine. Dr. Mosqueda served as the co-chief of the Elder Abuse Domain of the California Medical Training Center, where she was responsible for creating and implementing courses designed to train physicians and healthcare professionals in the medical forensic aspects of elder abuse. She also serves as the codirector of the Rehabilitation Research and Training Center on Aging With a Disability, at Rancho Los Amigos Medical Center. Dr. Mosqueda is the principal investigator of a 3-year project to create, implement, and evaluate an interdisciplinary elder abuse medical response team. This team works closely with Adult Protective Services, law enforcement, and the district attorney's office in addressing the abuse and neglect of older adults and adults with disabilities.
Lisa Nerenberg, M.S.W., M.P.H., is a consultant in private practice. Until recently, she directed the San Francisco Consortium for Elder Abuse Prevention at the Goldman Institute on Aging, a program that has been acknowledged as a national model of coordinated service delivery. Within this capacity, she designed, tested, and replicated a variety of new programs and services, including the widely replicated multidisciplinary elder abuse case review team, culturally specific outreach campaigns, a shelter, counseling program, and a support group for victims. She coordinates the Affiliate Program of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (NCPEA), a network of 18 State and local coalitions across the United States and Great Britain, and edits NCPEA's newsletter, Nexus, which focuses on cutting-edge issues in elder abuse prevention. She also produces technical assistance materials for the National Center on Elder Abuse. Ms. Nerenberg has conducted hundreds of training sessions on elder abuse and neglect, given keynote addresses, and delivered presentations at dozens of national professional forums. She has authored numerous chapters, articles, and manuals on a variety of topics related to elder abuse, including coalition building, prosecution of abuse cases, undue influence, financial abuse, victim services, culturally specific outreach, older battered women, and multidisciplinary teams. She recently guest edited issues of the Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect, and Generations, a publication of the American Society on Aging. She has developed training and curricula for State units on aging and adult elder abuse for police officers under contract to the Police Executive Research Forum. In addition, she has testified before subcommittees of the United States Senate and provided consultation and technical assistance to dozens of local and State level organizations across the United States and Canada.
Joanne Marlatt Otto, M.S.W., received her Master of Social Work degree from the University of Denver. She has worked in the field of Adult Protective Services for more than 20 years. Since 1986, she has served as the Adult Protective Services Administrator for the Colorado State Department of Human Services, Aging and Adult Services Division. In that capacity, she develops State policy, drafts legislation, designs and implements research projects, and conducts statewide training. Ms. Otto is the past president of the National Association of Adult Protective Services Administrators (NAAPSA) and was a partner in the National Center on Elder Abuse from 1998 to 2000. Through her association with NAAPSA, she has participated in designing and conducting national studies of Adult Protective Services and has given presentations to a wide variety of national organizations, including the Administration on Aging, the Institute of Medicine, and the U.S. Department of Justice. Since 1997, Ms. Otto has been the editor of Victimization of the Elderly and Disabled, a bimonthly publication. Her most recent publication, "The Role of Adult Protective Services in Addressing Abuse," appeared in the summer 2000 issue of Generations.
Gregory Paveza, Ph.D., M.S.W., received his B.A. from Lewis College in 1969, his M.S.W. from the University of Hawaii in 1973, and his Ph.D. in Public Health Sciences (Psychiatric Epidemiology) in 1986 from the School of Public Health at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Dr. Paveza is currently an Associate Professor in the School of Social Work and one of the founding faculty in the interdisciplinary Ph.D. in Aging Studies Program at the University of South Florida, located in Tampa, Florida. He has been a clinical social work practitioner, a social service agency administrator, and a health sciences researcher. He is currently an active university researcher and educator. His research interests include issues related to the social consequences of caregiving and Alzheimer's disease, including his specific interest in elder mistreatment in these families. Also, he has a general interest in elder mistreatment in all of its forms and its impact on the broader aging community. He is currently a member of the Institute of Medicine/National Research Council Committee on the Training Needs of Health Professionals to Respond to Family Violence, and a member of the Leadership Council of the Mental Health and Aging Network of the American Society on Aging. He has published extensively on issues related to geriatric assessment; on the caregiving consequences of Alzheimer's disease, including the cost of providing community-based care; and on elder mistreatment.
Thomas H. Peake, Ph.D., A.B.P.P., is currently Professor and Associate Dean of the School of Psychology at Florida Institute of Technology (Melbourne) and adjunct Professor at Florida Mental Health Institute Department of Aging (University of South Florida, Tampa). Licensed in Florida, Virginia, Michigan, and Great Britain, he has trained health professionals at Eastern Virginia and Michigan State medical schools and practiced clinical and medical psychology for more than 20 years. He is the Psychology Director of one of Florida's 13 State-supported Memory Disorder Clinics. His publications and practice areas include clinical training, psychotherapy, medical psychology, family therapy, and problems in healthy aging. His most recent publications related to this conference include the following: (1) Peake, T., Oelschlager, J. and Kearns, D. (2000). "Elder Abuse: Families, Systems, Causes and Interventions." In Kaslow, F. (ed). Handbook of Couple and Family Forensics. New York: Wiley. (2) Peake, T. (1998). Healthy Aging, Healthy Treatment: The Impact of Telling Stories. Westport, CT: Praeger/Greenwood. (3) Peake, T. (2000). Brief Psychotherapies (Second Printing). New York: Jason Aronson.
Karl Pillemer, Ph.D., is Professor of Human Development at Cornell University, where he also directs the Cornell Gerontology Research Institute, one of five Edward R. Roybal Centers on Applied Gerontology established nationwide by the National Institute on Aging. Over the past 20 years, he has conducted an extensive program of basic and intervention research on the abuse and neglect of elderly persons. In the area of family abuse of the elderly, he conducted the first large-scale prevalence study of this phenomenon, which interviewed more than 2,000 senior citizens in the greater Boston area. This study provided the first scientific estimates of the prevalence of elder abuse. With Mark Lachs, he has examined the role of elder abuse as a cause of mortality, using longitudinal epidemiological survey data. He also used survey techniques to conduct the first major survey of abuse and neglect in nursing homes, conducted in the State of New Hampshire. Since that time, he has replicated the study in the Philadelphia area and surveyed nursing home staff in several other States on issues of abuse and neglect. Dr. Pillemer has been involved in intervention programs to prevent abuse and conducted the evaluation of the "Ensuring an Abuse-Free Environment" program, in collaboration with the Coalition of Advocates for the Rights and Interests of the Elderly (Philadelphia). Dr. Pillemer's books on this topic include Elder Abuse: Conflict in the Family (Auburn House) and Helping Elderly Victims: The Reality of Elder Abuse (Columbia University Press), both with Rosalie Wolf. He is currently working on a practical book for nursing homes entitled Abuse-Proofing Your Facility. Dr. Pillemer's work on elder abuse has been published in such journals as The Gerontologist, Journal of Health and Social Behavior, New England Journal of Medicine, Journal of the American Medical Association, Research on Aging, and Journal of Elder Abuse and Neglect. He was a member of the Panel on Research on Anti-Social, Aggressive, and Violent Behavior convened by the National Institutes of Health. Dr. Pillemer's current work also focuses on improving the quality of care provided by nursing home staff. He created and evaluated Partners in Caregiving, a model training program that promotes cooperation and communication among family members and nursing home staff, which won a national Best Practice Award from the National Center for Human Resources and Aging. He is also working on improving the recruitment and retention of frontline long-term care workers. His books on this topic include Solving the Frontline Crisis in Long-Term Care, and The Nursing Assistant's Survival Guide. He has a long history of involvement in practice and policy issues relating to frontline long-term care workers and is the editor of Nursing Assistant Monthly, an educational newsletter for frontline staff used in more than 2,000 nursing homes nationwide. Dr. Pillemer is a founding member of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse.
Susan M. Renz, M.S.N., R.N., C.S., received her master's degree as a Gerontologic Nurse Clinician from the University of Pennsylvania, prepared as a nurse practitioner. She is currently working with the U.S. Department of Justice as a Federal monitor and serves as Project Director for Siderail Reduction Study conducted by the University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Ms. Renz is a member of the Attorney General's Medical/Legal Advisory Board for Abuse and Neglect. She has more than 14 years of experience working in long-term care. Also, she has worked as a clinician, director of nursing, and regional director of health services in a variety of long-term care facilities. She has provided consultation to facilities on fall management, restraint, reduction, survey preparedness, and pharmacological management.
Arthur B. Sanders, M.D., graduated from Cornell Medical School and received training at the University of Arizona. Presently, Dr. Sanders is a Professor in the Division of Emergency Medicine at the University of Arizona College of Medicine. His primary academic interests are cardiopulmonary resuscitation, geriatric emergency medicine, and biomedical ethics. He is a past president of Society for Academic Medicine (SAEM). He served as chair of the Geriatric Emergency Medicine Task Force for SAEM and was principal investigator for a grant from the John A. Hartford Foundation. He edited a book entitled Emergency Care for the Elder Person for the Task Force and an accompanying teaching manual. Dr. Sanders has served in a number of other positions, including vice-chair of the RRC-EM for the ACGME; past chair of the ACLS subcommittee for the American Heart Association; and chair of the Ethics Committee for the American College of Emergency Physicians. He also served as Chief of Staff of University Medical Center in Tucson.
Sidney M. Stahl, Ph.D., is a medical sociologist with a specialty in gerontology. He serves as Chief of healthcare Organization and Social Institutions at the National Institute on Aging, National Institutes of Health (NIH). He is responsible for research on healthcare delivery organization issues for older Americans as well as for research on elder abuse, end-of-life issues, long-term care, and caregiving. Dr. Stahl came to NIH in 1996 after having served as a researcher and professor of medical sociology and social gerontology at Purdue University and, more recently, as Deputy Director of the Department of Defense's National Quality Medical Program. He has published 4 books and more than 40 articles and chapters on the health of older Americans, social science factors in chronic disease, and statistical methods for the measurement of health in aging populations. He served as consultant to the World Health Organization in Geneva and Beijing as well as to several healthcare delivery organizations on the role of the social sciences in the delivery of services to older populations. He is active professionally in the Gerontological Society of America, the Association for Health Services Research, the American Public Health Association, and the American Sociological Association.
Randolph W. Thomas, M.A., received his undergraduate degree in Political Science from Chaminade University (Honolulu) and his master's degree in Political Science from the University of South Florida. He has been a Law Enforcement Instructor for the South Carolina Department of Public Safety, Criminal Justice Academy, for the past 11 years and currently serves as the Manager of the Domestic Investigations Unit. He has more than 22 years of law enforcement experience, primarily in the area of investigations, and has developed training material relating to the investigation of child and elder abuse and juvenile crime. He is responsible for instruction in the areas of juvenile delinquency, family violence, and investigations. Mr. Thomas is also the Project Director for the Academy's domestic violence training grant. He is a member of the South Carolina Adult Protection Coordinating Council and has served on a number of committees in the area of elder abuse. He has assisted in the review of domestic violence/elder abuse material for the American Bar Association. He also is an adjunct instructor at the University of South Carolina, College of Criminal Justice, and teaches courses in juvenile delinquency and child abuse. In addition, Mr. Thomas presents training to law enforcement and social service personnel in the area of elder abuse investigations throughout the United States.
D. Jean Veta, J.D., serves as Deputy Associate Attorney General at the U.S. Department of Justice. As Deputy Associate Attorney General, Ms. Veta advises the Associate Attorney General and the leadership of the Department on a wide range of legal and policy issues, with particular emphasis on oversight and management of e-commerce and technology policy matters, the Department's Elder Justice initiative, civil rights matters concerning education and lending practices, and issues affecting the Office of Justice Programs (which provides Federal leadership in developing the Nation's capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist crime victims). Prior to joining the Department of Justice, Ms. Veta served as Deputy General Counsel at the U.S. Department of Education, where she supervised the divisions of Postsecondary Education and Legislative Counsel. Before joining the Government, Ms. Veta served as a partner in the Washington, D.C., law firm of Covington & Burling. She specialized in regulatory enforcement matters, served as the coordinator of the firm's Financial Services Practice Group, and represented clients in various civil rights areas. Ms. Veta clerked for United States District Court Judge Harold H. Greene from 1981 to1982. She has been active in the American Bar Association (ABA) Section of Litigation for a number of years and currently serves as Secretary of the ABA Section of Litigation. She is a frequent speaker on litigation, enforcement issues, and regulatory matters. Ms. Veta graduated from Tulane Law School in 1981, where she was editor-in-chief of the Tulane Law Review. She also was awarded a Thomas J. Watson Fellowship in 1977 and graduated from Tulane University's Newcomb College in 1977.
Rosalie S. Wolf, Ph.D., received her B.S. degree from the University of Wisconsin and her Ph.D. in Social Welfare Policy with a concentration in aging from the Florence Heller Graduate School at Brandeis University, Waltham, Massachusetts. Currently, she is Executive Director of the Institute on Aging at UMass Memorial healthcare System, Worcester, Massachusetts, and Assistant Professor in the Departments of Medicine and Community Medicine and Family Practice at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. Dr. Wolf is the organizer of the National Committee for the Prevention of Elder Abuse (NCPEA) and currently serves as president. She also is editor of its international Journal of Elder Abuse & Neglect. In 1997, she organized, with colleagues from the United Kingdom and Argentina, the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, which she chairs. The Gerontological Society of America has bestowed on her its Donald P. Kent award for exemplifying the highest standards of professional leadership in gerontology through teaching, service, and interpretation of gerontology to the larger society. A major portion of Dr. Wolf's time in the past two decades has been devoted to the study of elder abuse in domestic settings. She has served as project director for three Administration on Aging-funded national programs dealing with information dissemination about elder abuse and coalition building and as a member of the management team for the National Center on Elder Abuse in Washington. Dr. Wolf has written numerous chapters and papers on elder mistreatment. With Karl A. Pillemer of Cornell University, she has coedited Elder Abuse: Conflict in the Family and co-authored Helping Elderly Victims: The Reality of Elder Abuse.
Wendy Wright, M.D., is a pediatrician at Children's Hospital in San Diego, California. She is an expert in the area of child abuse and neglect and regularly participates in the clinical assessment of potentially abused children and the education of healthcare workers, social services, and law enforcement regarding abuse issues. Recently, she participated in a California OCJP grant, lending her expertise in the area of forensic evaluations to the emerging arena of elder abuse. She has co-taught on the topic of elder abuse to healthcare practitioner audiences.
