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For Immediate Release |
Contact: Todd Kluss |
Antonucci to Receive GSA’s 2011 Distinguished Career Contribution to Gerontology Award
The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) — the nation’s largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to the field of aging — has chosen Toni Antonucci, PhD, of the University of Michigan as the 2012 recipient of the Distinguished Career Contribution to Gerontology Award.
This distinguished honor is given annually to an individual whose theoretical contributions have helped bring about a new synthesis and perspective or have yielded original and elegant research designs addressing a significant problem in the literature.
The award presentation will take place at GSA’s 65th Annual Scientific Meeting, which will be held from November 14 to 18 in San Diego. This conference is organized to foster interdisciplinary collaboration among researchers, educators, and practitioners who specialize in the study of the aging process. Visit www.geron.org/annualmeeting for further details.
Antonucci, who served as GSA president in 2002, is the associate vice president for research, social sciences and the humanities at the University of Michigan, where she also is the Elizabeth M. Douvan Collegiate Professor of Psychology and a research professor in the Institute for Social Research Life Course Development Program. She studies social relations and health across the life span, including multigenerational studies of the family and comparative studies of social relations across the life span in the U.S., Europe, Asia, and the Middle East.
One of Antonucci’s greatest research contributions is the convoy model of social relations, a pioneering effort that has become the gold standard for representing social networks and social support over the lifespan. This model is among the most cited in social and behavioral gerontology, as is its corresponding sociometric measurement technique that she developed to hierarchically map social relations. These have informed the research of generations of scholars who study personal relationships and aging. Additionally, she is involved in the examination and prevention of elder abuse; her research on social relations serves as an informed model for clarifying the nature and forms of elder abuse.
Her work has had important practical implications. For example, she is involved in Masterpiece Living projects, which endeavor to apply the tenets of successful aging to senior housing facilities. In 2011, Antonucci was given the Masterpiece Living Robert L. Kahn Award for Lifetime Achievement in Promoting Successful Aging for her efforts to improve quality of life among older adults. She was recently awarded a MacArthur Foundation grant to apply successful aging and Masterpiece Living principals to affordable housing facilities, and she is a member of the MacArthur Network on Aging Societies. She also is a GSA fellow, which represents the Society’s highest class of membership, and is a former editor of the Journal of Gerontology: Psychological Sciences. In 2013, she will become secretary general/vice president of the World Congress of Gerontology and Geriatrics, a major conference organized by the International Association of Gerontology and Geriatrics that will be hosted by GSA in San Francisco in 2017.
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The Gerontological Society of America (GSA) is the nation's oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization devoted to research, education, and practice in the field of aging. The principal mission of the Society — and its 5,400+ members — is to advance the study of aging and disseminate information among scientists, decision makers, and the general public. GSA’s structure also includes a policy institute, the National Academy on an Aging Society, and an educational branch, the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education.
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Mildred M. Seltzer Distinguished Service Recognition
Presented to C. Joanne Grabinski, PhD, Eastern Michigan University, and Mary Alice Wolf, PhD, Saint Joseph University.
This award honors colleagues who are near retirement or recently retired. Recipients are individuals who have been actively involved in AGHE through service on committees, as elected officers, and/or have provided leadership in one of AGHE’s grant-funded projects.
Administrative Leadership Award
Presented to Tammy M. Bray, PhD, Oregon State University
This award honors administrators on AGHE member campuses who have made exceptional efforts in support of gerontology or geriatrics education.
David A. Peterson Gerontology & Geriatrics Education Best Paper of the Volume Award
Presented to Nina M. Silverstein, PhD, University of Massachusetts Boston; Elizabeth Johns, MS, University of Massachusetts Boston; and Judith A. Griffin, MA, MS, University of Massachusetts Boston, for the article “Students Explore Livable Communities.” Honorable mention is given to Emily J. Robbins, MS, Miami University; Jennifer M. Kinney, PhD, Miami University; and Cary S. Kart, PhD, Miami University, for the article “Promoting Active Engagement in Health Research: Lessons Learned from an Undergraduate Gerontology Capstone Course.”
The purpose of this award is to recognize excellence in scholarship in academic gerontology in AGHE’s official journal, Gerontology & Geriatrics Education.
Graduate Student Paper Award
Presented to Deborah Gray, MBA, University of Massachusetts Boston, for the paper “Weight and Wealth: The Relationship between Obesity and Net Worth for Pre-Retirement Age Men and Women.”
This award acknowledges excellence in scholarly work conducted by an AGHE Annual Meeting student attendee.
Book Award for Best Children’s Literature on Aging
Presented to Caitlin Dale Nicholson and Leona Morinn-Nelson for “Niwechihaw/I help” in the primary reader (pre-K to 2nd grade) category, and Ann Grifalconi and Jerry Pickney for “Ain’t Nobody A Stranger to Me” in the elementary reader (3rd to 5th grade) category.
This award recognizes portrayals of meaningful aging in children’s literature.
