Access Resources from the 2021 Business of Aging
Research Report: "What does quality of life mean to older adults?"
Karen M. van Leeuwen, Miriam S. van Loon, Fenna A. van Nes, Judith E. Bosmans, Henrica C. W. de Vet, Johannes C. F. Ket, Guy A. M. Widdershoven, Raymond W. J. G. OsteloDownload the full report or read the summary.
Graphic: 5 Social Determinants of Health Categories
Including: Economic stability, housing and neighborhood environment, health and healthcare, social and community context, and educationDownload the graphic.
THIS YEAR'S KEYNOTE SPEAKERAlan Mallach
Alan is a senior fellow with the Center for Community Progress in Washington, D.C. and is widely known for his work on housing, neighborhoods, and urban revitalization.
He teaches in the graduate city planning program at Pratt Institute in New York City and has studied urban issues and lectured across the U.S. and in Europe and Japan. Previously he served as director of housing and economic development for the city of Trenton, New Jersey and taught at Rutgers University and Stockton State College.
He is the author of many books, articles, and research studies; his most recent book, The Divided City: Poverty and Prosperity in Urban America, explores the uneven effects of urban revival on lower income residents and communities of color. His other prominent works include:
- A Decent Home: Planning, Building, and Preserving Affordable Housing
- Inclusionary Housing Programs: Policies and Practices
- Rebuilding America's Legacy Cities: New Directions for the Industrial Heartland
2021 PANELISTTam Perry
Tam is an Associate Professor at the Wayne State University School of Social Work. Her research addresses urban aging from a life course perspective, focusing on how underserved older adults navigate their social and built environments in times of instability and change.
She is co-director of the NIH funded Community Liaison and Recruitment Core of the Michigan Center for African American Aging Research. She also currently serves as research chair for a multi-agency coalition, Senior Housing Preservation Detroit. She has recently been selected to be a fellow in the Gerontological Society of America and currently serves as president of the Association for Gerontology Education in Social Work (AGESW).
2021 PANELISTJen Molinsky
Jennifer is a Senior Research Associate at Harvard’s Joint Center for Housing Studies and a Lecturer in Housing at the Graduate School of Design. She leads the Center’s work on housing and aging, which focuses on demographic and housing trends as well as policy solutions to increase the supply of affordable, accessible housing, service delivery to the home, and livable communities supportive of older adults.
She was lead author on the Center’s major reports on the challenges of housing an aging society, including The State of the Nation’s Housing for Older Adults (2018 and 2019) and Housing America’s Older Adults: Meeting the Needs of an Aging Population (2014).
2021 PANELISTReverend Vanessa Oliver Ward
Reverend Vanessa Oliver Ward is the President of the Omega Community Development Corporation (Omega CDC) and Pastor Emerita of the Omega Baptist Church. She oversees the organization’s mission of providing services that help to develop and improve the lives of the youth, the families and the community of Northwest Dayton.
Under her leadership the Omega CDC has partnered with MVAH as co-developer for the construction of a $13 million, 81-unit senior housing complex, the Omega Senior Lofts, which opened in May 2020. This senior housing development complements the $11 million Hope Center for Families, an evidence-based, two-generational model for the reduction of poverty, which opens in November 2021.
