Member Spotlight

Q&A with Catherine H. Hennessy, DrPH, MA from University of Plymouth, Plymouth, United Kingdom.

		"Our project includes 25 team members in disciplines ranging from the social sciences to informatics, the visual and performative arts and heritage studies!."
Meet Catherine.

Q: How does GSA assist with your professional development?
A: I became a member of GSA in 1991 when I had just completed my doctorate in public health at the University of California, Berkeley, and presented my dissertation research at the Annual Scientific Meeting in San Francisco. Then as now, I remember being excited by the sheer breadth and quality of the conference program offering, as well as opportunities like the Interest Groups to meet other members in my areas of research. I’ve lived in the United Kingdom for the last 10 years, and the GSA Annual Scientific Meetings and the journals are a vital link for me in keeping updated with developments and colleagues in the field in the United States and internationally.

Q: How did you get involved in the field of aging?
A: In the 1970s I did a master’s degree in anthropology at the University of Florida under the supervision of Otto von Mering, who was a pioneer in the area of aging within social anthropology. The University had an excellent gerontology center and it was the heyday of US Administration on Aging funding for graduate training in gerontology. So I was in the right place at the right time gerontologically speaking and was able to combine my degree with a certificate in gerontological studies. I had become deeply interested in culture in relation to health and the experience of aging and went on to get a master’s degree in public health gerontology at the University of Hawaii. I spent a number of years working in research on older adult health and care provision in various settings including the Hawaii State Department of Health and On Lok Senior Health Services in San Francisco. After finishing my doctorate in 1991 I worked in research on health and aging at the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in Atlanta for 10 years before moving to the UK in 2001.

Q: What are your key responsibilities at your job?
A: As Professor and Chair in Public Health and Ageing at the University of Plymouth my primary responsibilities include research development in public health gerontology with a focus on rural aging. The South West of England where I am located has the oldest population of all the regions in the country, and so there are abundant opportunities for gerontological research. I typically work with other academics, service providers and government agencies on studies within the broad area of older people’s health and well-being. I also supervise graduate student research projects on these topics and always enjoy learning from my students.
 
Q: What is your most memorable experience in gerontology?
A: I’ve been fortunate to have had many memorable experiences in gerontology over the past 30 years. I’ve had the privilege of doing research in some fascinating places with diverse groups of older people—public housing for seniors in Honolulu, a pioneering program of long-term care in San Francisco’s Chinatown, and with American Indian tribes in the southwest U.S. Most recently my involvement in an oral history project with older people in rural areas in England has allowed me to hear some amazing accounts of their childhood experiences during World War II.  

Q: How do you feel GSA serves the field of gerontology and aging research?
A: As an organization with a broad disciplinary reach and an international membership, the GSA provides an unbeatable range of opportunities and outlets for scholars and practitioners to share evidence and best practice in all aspects of the field. As an American gerontologist living in the UK I know how much the journals and the Annual Scientific Meeting are held in high regard by European gerontologists. 

Q: Do you have any tips for emerging gerontologists?
A: Read widely and get to know colleagues outside of your own discipline who can encourage you to think laterally. With the increasing emphasis on multidisciplinary approaches in gerontological research and practice, this will serve you well. Get to know all kinds of older people. They will be the source of some of your best research ideas as well as ideas about life in general.  

Q: Tell us a little about your most recent activities/accomplishments?
A: I’m currently leading a research project on older people’s participation in the life of rural communities that is funded under an interdisciplinary research initiative—the New Dynamics of Ageing Programme— sponsored by several of the UK’s Research Councils. This programme has been a major effort by the national research funding bodies to promote interdisciplinary collaboration in aging research in the UK. Our project includes 25 team members in disciplines ranging from the social sciences to informatics, the visual and performative arts and heritage studies! The aim of the project is to investigate older people’s involvement in and contributions to their rural communities and to use outputs like film, websites, and exhibitions to increase public engagement with the research findings on older people as resources in rural areas. This has been a terrific opportunity to work with and learn from colleagues from other disciplines.              

Q: Have you had an important mentor in your career? If so, how did it make a difference?
A: Otto von Mering, my academic mentor in anthropology, was responsible for my becoming a gerontologist. He was an iconoclast who questioned the cultural assumptions of social systems like health care, and taught me how to think critically. Otto was always available to his students and enjoyed accompanying them to settings like nursing homes and retirement communities where cultural values about aging could be observed in action. Otto died last year at the age of 88, still writing and publishing up until the end, and an inspiring role model for positive living and aging.