GSA Welcomes Capitol Hill Policy Veteran Khasawinah as Visiting Scholar
Sarah Khasawinah, PhD, MHS, has joined GSA as part of its Visiting Scholar and Executive Program. In this role, Khasawinah will contribute to GSA’s work in the policy arena. She brings extensive experience in health and aging policy, including a decade-long role in crafting bipartisan aging policies as a key staff member on the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging.
“Sarah has a proven track record in bipartisan legislative strategy, regulatory frameworks, federal budget processes, and oversight methods to deliver measurable outcomes,” said GSA CEO James Appleby, BSPharm, MPH. “We welcome her and her expertise as we advance our commitment to securing robust federal funding for aging research and improving the lives of all of us as we age.”
Most recently, Khasawinah was senior advisor for the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging for Chairman Rick Scott and was previously deputy staff director for Chairman Susan Collins, Ranking Member Tim Scott, and Ranking Member Mike Braun. She led the 2020 reauthorization of the Older Americans Act (OAA) as well as the Senate-passed 2024 OAA reauthorization, and drove policy advancements in mental health, caregiving, biomedical research, substance use, drug pricing, and health care price transparency.
“I have long admired GSA’s leadership at the intersection of research, policy, and practice in service of older adults. I am delighted and honored to join as a scholar, and work with staff and members to cement the field of aging as an uncontested bipartisan national priority,” Khasawinah said. “GSA has been at the table for every critical conversation in aging policy. In the Senate, I especially enjoyed working with GSA staff and members on developing groundbreaking policies to address brain health, and in my new role, I look forward to accelerating a new era in cognitive health for years to come.”
Khasawinah was instrumental in leading the creation, negotiation, and passage of the BOLD Infrastructure for Alzheimer’s Act — a landmark law establishing a transformative public health framework for Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias.
At the onset of the COVID-19 global pandemic, she designed and planned the first federal hearing addressing the virus’s disproportionate toll on older adults. Subsequently, Khasawinah played a pivotal role in shaping provisions within the Families First Coronavirus Response Act and the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
She also helped to restore and expand the U.S. Senate Fraud Hotline, leading to a major federal investigation of Medicare fraud.
Khasawinah earned her PhD in mental health from Johns Hopkins University, where she focused on brain health and aging. She also received an MHS in biostatistics, concentrating on neuroimaging.
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The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), founded in 1945, is the nation’s oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization focused on aging. It serves more than 6,000 members in over 50 countries. GSA’s vision, meaningful lives as we age, is supported by its mission to foster excellence, innovation, and collaboration to advance aging research, education, practice, and policy. GSA is home to the National Academy on an Aging Society (a nonpartisan public policy institute) and the National Center to Reframe Aging.