Member Spotlight
Q&A with Deborah T. Gold, PhD, from Durham, NC.
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"One study participant epitomized for me the wisdom and courage of older adults. She was walking at a 90 degree angle because of multiple spinal fractures... When I asked how she managed to make it through each day, she replied, 'Because it beats the alternative, my dear. It beats the alternative!'" | |
Meet Deborah. |
Q: How long have you been a GSA member? Why did you become a member and what type of involvement do you have?
A: I joined GSA in 1985 during my final year in grad school. At the time, I did so in order to submit an abstract for the 1986 meeting, the first I attended. The GSA Annual Meeting is a treasure. It is an opportunity to learn cutting edge science as well as touch base with friends and colleagues. The BSS section is my home within the Society; I wouldn’t miss a Section Meeting for anything.
Q: How does GSA assist with your professional development?
A: Although I belong to many professional societies, GSA is the only one where I truly feel at home. The journals and annual meeting intellectually challenge all of us with similar interests in aging. I have chaired the Behavioral and Social Sciences section as well as two GSA committees: Membership and Research, Education, and Practice. Involvement in GSA governance has been central to my professional and personal development, and the skills I learned in those positions have transferred to my workplace and enhanced my involvement in other such organizations.
Q: How did you get interested in the field of aging?
A: Most people who ask this question want to hear that I had a carefully planned journey into the study of aging. My experience couldn’t be further from that. In fact, I was studying adolescence in the Human Development and Social Policy program at Northwestern and was required to take a proseminar in adult development and aging taught by Bernice Neugarten, something I wasn’t terribly excited about. The first class session was an epiphany, and it engaged my interest in the study of aging. A postdoc at Duke sealed my commitment to this field.
Q: How do you feel GSA serves the field of gerontology and aging research?
A: GSA has been at the vanguard of interdisciplinary research, advocacy and education on aging for the last 64 years. Members of GSA have become leaders in aging at the NIH and in all academic settings. They serve on study sections in multiple areas and have initiated major longitudinal studies of aging and late life. Perhaps most importantly, GSA enables the dissemination and discussion of key issues in the sociobehavioral and biomedical sciences both within the scientific community and to the society at large.
Q: What are your key responsibilities at your job?
A: One of the most rewarding teaching opportunities I have at Duke has been with an undergraduate course called Death and Dying. This has been an inspiring opportunity to work with the most courageous students on campus. We cover extraordinarily challenging material, trying to come to grips with topics such as disenfranchised grief, physician-assisted suicide, and end of life care. I also direct the Duke Postdoctoral Research Training Program in Aging which gives me the opportunity to mentor some of the brightest young gerontologists in the country.
Q: What is your most memorable research/patient experience?
A: My research in the last two decades has focused on the biopsychosocial impact of osteoporosis on older adults. One study participant epitomized for me the wisdom and courage of older adults. She was a walking 90 degree angle because of multiple spinal fractures. Despite her deformity and pain, she lived as altruistic a life as I can imagine. When I asked how she managed to make it through each day, she replied, “Because it beats the alternative, my dear. It beats the alternative!”
Q: Do you have any tips for emerging gerontologists?
A: Get involved in GSA. Join ESPO and participate in your section activities. Volunteer to help out or to serve on a committee or task force. Run for office. Attend section updates at the annual meeting. Contacts made through GSA are extremely valuable for your entire career.
Also, think creatively about your research. The field really needs fresh ideas and research directions. Those who can think outside the box are most likely to achieve success.
Q: Tell us a little about your most recent activities/accomplishments?
A: In GSA, I am serving on the Mentoring Task Force and as a member of the 65th Anniversary Work Group. In my research, I am beginning a research project on social factors and their impact on compliance with osteoporosis medication.
The high point of the year was to receive the 2009 Duke University Outstanding Postdoc Mentor Award. Good mentoring is critical to the success of new professionals, and the postdocs who nominated me make it easy to be a good mentor! GSA is another venue in which mentoring occurs, and emerging professionals should make every effort to utilize this opportunity.
Q: Have you had an important mentor in your career? If so, how did it make a difference?
A: No one has been more lucky than I in terms of mentors. In graduate school, my mentor and chair at Northwestern was Bernice L. Neugarten, PhD, DSc. Bernice was an early force in the field of gerontology; she was also an exceptional thinker. Many terms that she coined are critical parts of our vocabulary today: social clock; on-time and off-time; young-old and old-old. Bernie inspired me to focus on older adults as people and to view research as a force for social change.
Since my arrival at Duke in 1986, Linda K. George, PhD, has been my mentor and friend. She, like Bernice, is extraordinarily generative and has mentored some of the brightest young scholars in the field of aging. Linda has enhanced the field of aging through her research, writing, and leadership. She is the prototype of the successful academic as an outstanding scholar, a master teacher and mentor, and an exceptional communicator in gerontology. Having these two distinguished women as my mentors has been a blessing.
