Research Funding
Adult Day Program Leisure World Seal Beach
Funder: Alzheimer's Orange County via Golden Rain Foundation via Administration for Community Living
Period: 6/14/2024-August 31/2025
Award total: $23,268
With the aging of the local population, Alzheimer’s and related dementias (ADRD) are an increasing issue for older adults andtheir families. This project is a subcontract with AlzOC to run a respite program for persons with ADRD and their caregivers atLeisure World Seal Beach. The program is staffed by student interns from CSULB who are trained and supervised by AlzOCto provide direct care to persons with ADRD for 8-10 hours per week. The Center for Successful Aging is being subcontracted by AlzOC to recruit interns and provide guidance and support for the program. This part of the CSULB Center for Successful Aging to train and develop the future workforce for an aging society.
Systematic Innovations in Meeting the Needs of Older Adults
Award Total: $200,000
Period: April 2018-March 2020
Role: Principal Investigator
Agency: The Archstone Foundation, American Gold Star Manor, The SCAN Health Plan
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To implement and evaluate innovative strategies to health promotion for older adults residing in low-income public housing, including fall prevention, improved nutrition, walking, exercise, and connectivity to services through faculty-led and student staffed initiatives.
Assessing Social and Physical Health of Older Adults in South Florida
Award total: $216,747.00
Period: July 1, 2014-June 30, 2015
Role: Principal Investigator (Co-PI: Edgar Ramos Vieira)
Agency: Florida Department of Health
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To assess psychosocial, physical and mobility factors related to frailty and falls that lead to long-term care utilization among Hispanic older adults in South Florida.
Exploring socio-economic and ethnic barriers to health promoting activities among older adults
Agency: Macarthur Foundation Network on Socio-economic Status and Health
Role: Principal Investigator
Period: 8/2005-8/2007
Award total: $26,008
Existing evidence indicates that social engagement through participation in social activities and the potential health benefits derived may vary by socio-economic gradient and ethnicity. These health promoting programs and activities may not reach all populations. The specific aims of the proposed research are: 1) to identify generative and other social activities (e.g., volunteering, intergenerational activities) of interest to older adults of diverse socio-economic and ethnic groups; 2) to identify specific factors that facilitate active social engagement (including voluntarism and retention in intergenerational programs such as Experience Corps) among older adults, considering socio-demographics obstacles and barriers, individual motives, perceived benefits and role expectations; and finally 3) to explore socio-economic and gender differences in perceived barriers and facilitators, motivations and role expectations that may affect interest in or willingness to participate in such activities. This information is crucial in order to develop targeted strategies and provide opportunities for active and meaningful roles for older adults.
Understanding the experience of care: Developing a culturally-informed model of support for Latino Caregivers of Persons with Dementia
Funder: California State University College of Health and Human Services
Period: 2021-2022
Award total: $20,000
A comprehensive model of dementia care should highlight the congruence and inclusion of both medical care and long-term services and supports, as well as values a strong connection between the person living with dementia and their caregivers to information, care, services and supports to meet needs, address concerns, and improve outcomes. This grant provided pilot monies towards the development of an NIH proposal that aims to improve access and quality of support for Latino family caregivers of persons with dementia (PWD) by developing and piloting a culturally sensitive model of dementia care that supports caregivers in two of the most highly impacted geographical areas in the United States - South Florida and Southern California - in partnership with the local area on agency, health professions education, and providers network.
The Experience of Alzheimer’s Disease Family Caregivers in a Hispanic Community: Cultural Congruence and Disparities in Utilization of Support Services
Award Total: $148,117
Period: July 1, 2017-June 30, 2019
Role: Principal Investigator
Agency: National Institute on Aging
R03AG054142
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Hispanic caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s and related dementias have been noted to use fewer formal services despite a high burden of disease and expressed need for services. In collaboration with the local area agency on aging, we propose to compare the expressed needs of Hispanic caregivers of persons with Alzheimer’s who are in need of formal services with the perspectives of service providers regarding the types of services needed to identify any difference in perspectives that may be impacting access to care.
Cognitive Pathways to Disability: Diversity Supplement – Social Pathways to Disability
Award total: $261,962
Period: 1/1/06-8/31/07​
Role: Principal Investigator
Agency: National Institute on Aging
R01AG19825-04S1 ​
This supplement supported my work as a junior investigator to quantify components of social activity and their association with age-related cognitive and functional declines. We applied this qualitative data to develop and validate a social activity index that would discriminate between non-social activities and social activities, and have the potential for predicting functional declines. The index was then used to evaluate whether social activity is associated with specific components of cognition (memory, executive function), performance and self-reported mobility declines, and in instrumental activities of daily living (IADLs) that require both cognitive and mobility function.
Retired Educators Offering Support to Teachers: The Baltimore Pilot Site Experience
Agency: National Retired Teachers Association
Role: Co-Principal Investigator (with Kevin Frick)
Period: 11/2004-5/2006
Award total: $40,000
The purpose of the research is to explore the role of older adult volunteers in teacher retention in inner city schools in Baltimore City by: 1) determining the potential impact of current Experience Corps volunteers on levels of teacher retention, especially among new teachers; 2) identifying the factors related to teacher attrition that Experience Corps volunteers can most effectively impact; 3) developing recommendation for the placement and training of volunteers to best support new teachers and administrators. In partnership with retired teachers and administrators we are analyzing data on both personal and environmental factors related to teacher retention (including teacher satisfaction, absenteeism, and effectiveness), estimated costs of teacher attrition, and perceptions of the roles that older adults are capable of fulfilling.
Strength in Diversity: Assessing the Health of the Latino Community in Baltimore City
Agency: W.K. Kellogg Foundation
Role: Principal Investigator
Co-Investigator: Carmen Nieves, MPA, Centro de la Comunidad
Period: 2002-2003
Award total: $40,000
The purpose of the research was to assess the health of the emerging Latino population in Baltimore City using participatory-based research methods that emphasize both the strengths of the community, as well as their priority health concerns and access to health. The long-term goal is to obtain baseline data for community-based intervention development and evaluation.
Hopkins Population Center Pre-doctoral Research Fellowship
Agency: Andrew W. Mellon Foundation Grant.
Role: Principal Investigator
Period: September 1998-August 1999
Award total: $18,000
This fellowship supported fieldwork in Miami, Florida applying in-depth ethnographic research methods with the aim of investigating the psychological, social, and familial consequences of aging of Cuban immigrants within the context of demographic changes in fertility and migration patterns.
Folkloric Dance and Ethnicity in Venezuela
Agency: Johns Hopkins University Institute of Global Studies in Power, Culture and History.
Role: Principal Investigator
Period: June-August 1995.
Award total: $1,300
This grant supported travel to Venezuela to conduct three months of ethnographic fieldwork in the city of Maracaibo for master’s thesis on the role of folkloric dance in nation-building in Venezuela.
Aging in Exile: The Consequences of Migration for Cuban Elders
Agency: National Institute on Aging
R03AG016279
Role: Principal Investigator
Period: September 1999-February 2001
Award total: $32,400
The overall objective of the project is to investigate the psychological, social, and familial consequences of migration for older Cuban immigrant. The research will provide an in-depth study of elderly Cuban immigrants in South Florida with the purpose of investigating the cultural and social factors confronted by older Cuban immigrants in South Florida and how these affect their mental health. It is hypothesized that: (i) The earlier in life a person migrates and the longer their time of residence in the U.S. the more assimilated they become and hence the better their mental health; (ii) Alternatively, cohort differences in mental health may be collapsed by the community ideology of exile. These hypotheses will be tested through cohort analysis of the survey data, and both quantitative and qualitative (textual) analysis.
Responding to the Aging of the Cuban Population
Agency: Ford Foundation Cuba Exchange Program administered through the Department of Latin American Studies, Johns Hopkins University.
Role: Principal Investigator
Period: May 1997
Award total: $1,254
This grant supported travel to Cuba to conduct preliminary fieldwork on the gerontological health services available to the aging Cuban population and attend international geriatric meeting organized by Centro Iberoamericano de la Tercera Edad, Calixto Garcia Hospital, University of Havana, Cuba.
Funding Obtained for Community Endeavors, Curriculum Development, and Student Support
The Long Beach Aging Services Collaborative
Funder: The Archstone Foundation
Period: 2021-2022
Award Total: $5000
The Long Beach Aging Services Collaborative (LBASC) connects service providers, community organizations, and advocacy groups to work towards a more integrated aging service model by sharing current services, resources and legislative information. Co-founded by the CSULB Center for Successful Aging, the Center provides technical assistance and support for the LBASC. The grant was provided to support website development and membership training.
Miami Breast Health Initiative
Agency: Susan G. Komen Foundation
Role: Principal Investigator.
Period: April 2013-March 2014
Award total: $10,000
To promote breast health and early diagnosis and treatment of breast cancer in underserved population of North Miami-Dade through community/academic partnerships, linking medical students with community health educators to build healthy equity and higher cure rates for vulnerable groups.
The SCAN Health plan Scholarship for the Health and Independence of Older Adults
Funder: The SCAN Health Plan
Period: 2019 to present
Award total: $50,000 per year (total $200,000 to date)
Support for creating a pipeline for careers in aging and healthcare by incentivizing students to go into aging-related health and social service fields, and in return, service components for degrees would be required in agencies serving older adults. The scholarship is open to undergraduate or graduate students in the CSULB College of Health and Human Services, including Gerontology, Adult & Geriatric Nursing/Adult & Gerontology Nurse Practitioner program, Master’s of Social Work in Adulthood & Aging; Others that will be considered include: Physical Therapy, Speech-Language Pathology, Kinesiology, Recreation & Leisure, Health Care Administration, Health Science, Criminology, Criminal Justice, and Emergency Management, Public Policy and Administration, and Family and Consumer Sciences.
Funded Projects as Co-Investigator or Collaborator
An Underline for the Underserved
Agency: FIU College of Communication, Architecture and the Arts (CARTA)
Principal Investigator: Newton D’Souza
Role: Co-investigator
Interdisciplinary Seed Grant
Period July 1, 2017-March 31, 2018
Award: $5,130
The purpose of this project is to empirically measure functional, behavioral, and environmental attributes of active living and provide evidence-based solutions for sustainable urban aging in place using field and lab-based simulation research. Our goal will be to integrate rehabilitative and physical environment interventions that lead to elder-friendly design guidelines for Miami’s Underline, an urban-linear park.
Recruiting Older Adults: A Volunteer Motivational Screening Instrument
Agency: NIH Center for Collaborative Intervention Research
NINR 1P30NR008995, SAP GRANT#907448, 90031944
Principal Investigator: Elizabeth Tanner
Role: co-investigator
Period: 7/1/07-7/1/09
This study evaluated the psychometric properties and effectiveness of an Intervention Motivational Screener (IMS) instrument used to recruit and determine the eligibility of older adults for Experience Corps™ Baltimore (ECB), a randomized trial to assess the impact of an intervention to improve the physical, cognitive and social health of older adults through volunteerism. We evaluate the accuracy of the IMS for accurately predicting recruitment trends in order to enhancing the effectiveness of recruitment.
SABE: Health, Wellbeing and Aging in Latin America and the Caribbean
Agency: Interagency agreement between National Institute on Aging and the Pan American Health Organization.
Principal Investigator: Martha Pelaez
Role: Research Consultant
Period: 1997-2002
SABE is a cross-national survey on health and aging organized as a cooperative venture among researchers in Argentina, Barbados, Brazil, Chile, Cuba, Mexico and Uruguay. SABE has produced the first cross-national database for studying health and aging in these countries. The study objectives are to: Describe health conditions of elders (60+); Evaluate elder's access to and use of health care services; Assess the relative contribution of formal and informal supports toward the satisfaction of health-related needs; Analyze differentials self-assessed health, access, and support, with respect to social class, gender and birth cohort; Evaluate the relations between health-related behavior, occupational history, socioeconomic conditions, gender, and cohort on health conditions; Perform comparative analyses across countries who share important characteristics but who differ in a formal and informal supports and health related behaviors and exposure to risk conditions.
Experience Corps Baltimore: a randomized control trial
Agency: National Institute on Aging
5P01AG027735-04 ​
Principal Investigator: Linda Fried (PI) ​​​​
Role: Co-investigator; Core Co-director (until 8/2007)
Period: 7/1/06-6/30/11
Award total: $2,364,223
Experience Corps™ Baltimore (ECB) trial is evaluating an ongoing community-based volunteer program incorporating both volunteer service designed to impact the academic success of children in grades K-three and the health of older adult volunteers by increasing their physical, social, and cognitive activities. I am co-principal investigator on the “Psychological and Social Outcomes” project, focusing on how the program can impact self-perceptions of aging, as well as social engagement and self-efficacy. As co-director of the Data Collection & Management Core I oversaw the research evaluations from 2006-2007. I am also co-investigator on the Recruitment Core and Cost-effectiveness evaluation project.
Risk factors for physical disability in aging women
Agency: National Institute on Aging
R01-AG11703-11
Principal Investigator: Linda Fried
Role: Project Director 2003-2006; Co-investigator 2003-2007
Period: 6/10/94-5/31/06​
Award total: $3,830,927
This grant identified early decrements in physical functioning, and to demonstrate whether these changes identify those at high risk of becoming disabled and are predictive of future disability. 2003-2006.The Women’s Health and Aging Study II is prospective population-based observational study of the 2/3 least disabled community dwelling women aged 70-80 at baseline. The study has been funded by the National Institutes of Health since 1994 and is ongoing. I collected data on women’s perspective of successful aging and well-being in the context of disability through free-listing and pile sorts, as well as analysis of audiotapes. Both open-ended data and ranked responses are being analyzed in relation to four domains of health: a) physical characteristics (diseases, health habits and use of compensatory strategies), b) cognitive: abilities and activity, c) psychological, and d) social engagement.
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