Reporting Fellowship Will Honor Elder Justice Advocate Elizabeth Podnieks
The Journalists in Aging Fellows Program has established its first designated fellowship for the coverage of elder justice issues, honoring the late Elizabeth Podnieks, EdD, the founder of World Elder Abuse Awareness Day (WEAAD).
Now in its 17th year, the fellowship program is a collaboration between the Gerontological Society of America (GSA) and the Journalists Network on Generations. It aims to bridge working journalists with expert sources on our aging society and foster a greater public understanding of its complexities.
The program has selected CNBC personal finance reporter Lorie Konish to receive the inaugural Dr. Elizabeth Podnieks Elder Justice Reporting Fellowship, bringing the number of participating fellows this year to 15.
For her in-depth fellowship project, Konish will investigate how surviving spouses and other family members may face huge bills for past property taxes, mortgages or other payments, possibly losing their home to an auction sale.
“This is a legal issue that impacts older adults, particularly individuals who are low-income or live in racially diverse communities,” she said. She will also write about complications in estate planning that may jeopardize a family’s ability to retain its home.
The fellowship in memory of Podnieks, who died at age 94 in 2024, will recognize her international contributions toward the public’s understanding of elder justice concerns and the prevention of elder abuse, ranging from individual maltreatment and financial exploitation to systematic practices or policies that disadvantage older people.
A nurse educator, Podnieks was a professor of gerontology at Toronto Metropolitan University (formerly Ryerson University) who conducted benchmark research on elder justice issues, notably conducting Canada’s first National Survey on Abuse of the Elderly, published in 1991. Later she established the Canadian Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse and became a founding member of the International Network for the Prevention of Elder Abuse, serving as an executive for both organizations. She was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 2000. A prolific writer, she most recently co-edited “The Worldwide Face of Elder Abuse” (Springer Nature, 2023) and co-authored a chapter on elder abuse in the United States.
Working with global partners, she established WEEAD in 2006, now held every June 15. It was set as a United Nations observance day in 2011 by the UN General Assembly. Many organizations such as GSA, the American Society on Aging, the National Adult Protective Services Association, and Canada’s CanAge offer programming in support of WEEAD, while some groups and agencies, such as the Los Angeles County Aging & Disabilities Department, recognize the “day” with a public-awareness campaign throughout the month of June.
The Dr. Elizabeth Podnieks Elder Justice Reporting Fellowship is funded by donations from Betty F. Malks, ACSW, a former WEAAD chairperson and retired director of the Social Services Agency for Santa Clara County, California; and John Migliaccio, PhD, a gerontologist and consultant.
Since 2010, the Journalists in Aging Fellows Program has trained 272 Fellows from about 175 news organizations, generating upwards of 950 articles on an expansive range of health and social issues.
The program is also supported by funding from Silver Century Foundation, The Commonwealth Fund, The John A. Hartford Foundation, National Institute for Health Care Management Foundation (NIHCM), Health Foundation for Western & Central New York, and the Aging and Gerontology Programs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
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The Gerontological Society of America (GSA), founded in 1945, is the oldest and largest interdisciplinary organization focused on aging. It serves more than 6,800 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.
The Journalists Network on Generations, founded in 1993, is based in San Francisco. It links to over 1,000 journalists, authors, and producers on issues in aging, and publishes Generations Beat Online News (GBONews.org).