General Sessions
Opening General Session
Monday, March 15 | 4:30 – 6:00 pm
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot |
Dr. Regina Benjamin, the Surgeon General of the United States, will kick off the opening general session of the NCOA-ASA Aging in America Conference. She will share her vision of health care for older adults and her plans for her role with the current administration.
Keynote Address: The Third Chapter
For the first time in history, longevity has given millions of Americans the chance to explore an entirely new chapter in life. Often called the “third” chapter, the ages 50 to 75 have become a time and space for many individuals to learn, create, give back, and live their passions more than ever before.
Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot—educator, researcher, writer, and public intellectual—believes that this period may, in fact, be the most transformative and generative time in our lives. A prize-winning sociologist and the Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education at Harvard University, Dr. Lawrence-Lightfoot has written nine books—the latest published in January 2009 and titled, The Third Chapter: Risk, Passion, and Adventure in the Twenty-Five Years After 50.
Dr. Lawrence-Lightfoot spent two years interviewing men and women in their 50s, 60s, and 70s to document new ways in which individuals are embracing life to try out new careers that often defy traditional norms. Among her subjects are a lawyer who leaves a law firm for divinity school, a mechanical engineer who becomes an artist, a physicist who becomes a middle school teacher, and a businesswoman who returns to international relief work.
In this moving general session, join Dr. Lawrence-Lightfoot as she shines a light on the exciting possibilities waiting for all of us as we enter our “third chapter” of life.
Presenter: Sara Lawrence-Lightfoot, Emily Hargroves Fisher Professor of Education, Harvard University.
Part 2: The Sleeping Giant Awakes: Aging Services Advocacy in Decade Ahead
For too many years, the political power of the aging services network— thousands of national, state and community organizations serving millions of seniors—was largely unrealized. During the health care reform debate, aging advocacy organizations influenced public policies to a greater extent than ever before. Creative uses of new technologies emerged to give greater voice to older adults and aging professionals. Breakthroughs in collaboration led to some surprising successes. At the same time, "ageism" was the norm in the political debate and there were serious "disconnects" between the positions of aging advocacy organizations and the people they assert to represent.
NCOA President and CEO Jim Firman will reflect on the experiences of the past year and their important implications for the future. He will share a vision and a blueprint for how the aging network can become a much more formidable political force in the years ahead as we address a range of daunting challenges and transformational opportunities—including entitlement reform, reauthorization of the Older Americans Act and the next phases of advocacy related to health, long-term care, and economic security.
Presenter: James Firman, President and CEO, National Council on Aging.
Respondent: Robert Blancato, Co-Chair, ASA Public Policy Committee, and Principal, Matz, Shea & Blancato.
Health Care Today: An Insider’s Perspective
Tuesday, March 16 | 3:30-4:00 pm
Kathleen Sebelius |
Kathleen Sebelius, Secretary of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, will provide an overview of the policy and practice issues currently on the federal health care agenda.
The Secretary governs one of the largest civilian departments in the federal government with more than 67,000 employees. HHS is the principal agency for protecting the health of all Americans by providing effective health and human services, especially for those who are least able to help themselves. Secretary Sebelius has over 20 years of experience in state government, and has been a leader on health care issues for over a decade.
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Passages in Caregiving
Tuesday, March 16 | 4:00-5:30 pm
Gail Sheehy |
Cultural observer and best-selling author Gail Sheehy is an expert on life’s passages. For more than three decades she has offered her keen insight about the fundamental questions and issues affecting women and men as they move through life. Now, Sheehy has set her focus on an extremely personal passage: her walk into what she calls “the labryrinth of caregiving.”
In the 1990s, Gail Sheehy’s life changed radically after her husband was diagnosed with cancer. She stepped immediately into this “uncharted part of the life cycle” to become his personal caregiver for many years. Currently, she is a caregiving “ambassador” for AARP and is writing a new book, Passages in Caregiving: Turning Chaos into Confidence.
In this General Session, Sheehy will present her metaphoric concept of the care labyrinth, with its eight distinct turnings, each with its unique challenges and unfolding moments of joy. She will offer empowering strategies for negotiating the caregiving passage—a cycle of life that compels us to approach an uncertain future with a new philosophy. Sheehy’s inspiring and moving stories from her personal caregiving diary, along with the experiences of over 100 other caregivers she has interviewed, add dimension to this comprehensive chronicle on caring for others.
Sheehy will be joined by a distinguished panel of guest speakers who will bring the wisdom of their own stories to the discussion. These are stories of caring for parents; of having to receive care; of working to frame national caregiving policy; and of growing a business that centers on senior homecare. This session offers useful lessons, advice and hope for us all—for those who are caring for another, and for those who have not yet stepped into this demanding life passage.
Keynote: Gail Sheehy, Author of 16 books and numerous articles.
Respondents: Louis Colbert, Director, Delaware County Office of Services for the Aging; Patricia J. Volland, MSW, MBA, Senior Vice President and Director, Social Work Leadership Institute, The New York Academy of Medicine; Jennie Chin Hansen, President, AARP; R. Virginia Smith, Senior Manager, Corporate Affairs - Constituent Relations, Walmart; Paul Hogan, Co-Founder, Home Instead Senior Care.
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The Aging of America: Triumph or Tragedy?
Wednesday, March 17 | 8:00 – 9:30 am
We are about to confront a demographic shift of enormous magnitude: increasing longevity, declining fertility, and the aging of the baby boom are triggering an enormous “age wave.” This wave has the potential to create vibrant new stages of life with positive roles for the multiplying ranks of elders—and an equally compelling potential for social, financial and political catastrophe.
For many, life’s prolonged second half will be a time to chart a new course. We’ll have the time and resources to reverse past failures or build on past victories, perhaps changing careers, taking a sabbatical, or returning to school. With longer life spans and improved health, there will also be sufficient time to take a more active and contributing role in the lives of our children, grandchildren and community life.
For others, however, extended longevity will be fraught with pain and discomfort. As bodies suffer and minds fail, millions may well spend their final decades struggling with depressing loneliness and unrelenting pain. Large numbers of tomorrow’s elders could also wind up impoverished, left stranded by dwindling old age entitlements.
- Can our country afford to have tens of millions of us living to 80? Or 100?
- With breakthroughs in longevity, at what age should we be considered “old” and therefore eligible to retire and receive old-age benefits?
- What will be the impact of four-generation families?
- Are we prepared to spend more years caring for our aging parents than for our children?
- Will existing entitlement programs survive long enough for us to reap even part of what we have been paying in?
- Can our current healthcare system handle the onslaught of chronic degenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s?
- Are we prepared to reengineer many of our products and services to meet the needs of maturing consumers?
- Are our politicians capable of distributing strained government resources fairly among many generations, each with its own distinct needs, styles, fears, complaints, and expectations?
- Can we envision – and bring to life a new “purpose” to maturity?
In this powerful general session, five of our nation’s leading visionaries will address these questions and share their reflections, concerns and hopes for how we might chart and navigate the best course to our collective futures.
Presenters:
Ken Dychtwald, President and CEO, Age Wave
Robert Butler, MD, CEO, International Longevity Center
Tom C. Nelson, Chief Operating Officer, AARP
Mae Carpenter, MS, Commissioner, Westchester County Department of Senior Programs and Services
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