Dianne Stone has more than 20 years of experience with senior centers and aging issues, primarily as the Director of the Newington Senior and Disabled Center in Newington, Connecticut. Stone has also worked, volunteered, and held leadership positions with a variety of organizations in Connecticut, including Connecticut AgeWell Collaborative, the ADA Coalition of Connecticut, Connecticut Medicaid Oversight Council, and the Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity. She joined NCOA in January 2022, as a member of the Center for Healthy Aging, where she is primarily focused on supporting senior centers throughout the country through the ACL-funded Modernizing Senior Centers Resource Center and NISC. 

Dianne Stone has more than 20 years of experience with senior centers and aging issues, primarily as the Director of the Newington Senior and Disabled Center in Newington, Connecticut. Stone has also worked, volunteered, and held leadership positions with a variety of organizations in Connecticut, including Connecticut AgeWell Collaborative, the ADA Coalition of Connecticut, Connecticut Medicaid Oversight Council, and the Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity. She joined NCOA in January 2022, as a member of the Center for Healthy Aging, where she is primarily focused on supporting senior centers throughout the country through the ACL-funded Modernizing Senior Centers Resource Center and NISC. 

Kathy Kinsner has led ZERO TO THREE’s grandparenting initiative for the last five years, focusing on the unique needs of grandparents caring for grandchildren under five. (zerotothree.org/grandparents) Most recently, Kathy co-created ZTT’s Grand Connections series of grandparent workshops with input from Generations United, the National Family Support Network, and the National Council on Aging, and supervised its pilot at seven US sites. Before her arrival at ZERO TO THREE, Kathy worked for more than forty years as an educator in a variety of settings—as an elementary reading specialist, an Emmy- and NAACP Award-winning producer on PBS series Reading Rainbow, the designer of a non-profit weekly college and careers curriculum for 7^th through 12^th-graders, and the creator of online graduate courses for educators, one of which won a Teacher’s Choice Award. Kathy holds Master’s Degrees in Education (Bowling Green State University) and Television, Radio, and Film (Syracuse) and was a teaching assistant at both institutions.

Rebecca Parlakian serves as senior director of programs at ZERO TO THREE, a national nonprofit focused on promoting the healthy development of children from birth to 3 years old, where she directs a portfolio of federally and privately funded projects related to healthy child development and high-quality teaching and caregiving for children from birth to 5. Rebecca has co-authored four parenting education curricula and developed parenting resources on various topics and in various formats (including an app, podcasts, and videos). Rebecca’s written work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the ZERO TO THREE Journal and the peer-reviewed Young Children, journal of the National Association for the Education of Young Children. She has also spoken widely, both within the U.S. and internationally, on topics including brain development, early literacy and language development, parent coaching, children and media, and more. Rebecca holds a master’s degree in education and human development, with a concentration in infant-toddler special education, from the George Washington University, where she is currently serving as adjunct faculty.

Donna Bethge is an Aging Services Program Specialist in the Office of Nutrition and Health Promotion Programs at the Administration for Community Living (ACL), Administration on Aging.  She worked in the aging network in Maryland for 10 years with Area Agencies on Aging and an assisted living community, developing and implementing programs for older adults, as well as supporting and promoting evidence-based programs before joining the team at ACL as the lead for the Falls Prevention grant program.  She earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Organizational Management from Northern Kentucky University.

Dr. Stark is Associate Professor of Occupational Therapy, Neurology and Social Work at the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis.  Dr. Stark has built an impressive research program examining environmental modifications and adaptation to support aging-in-place for community-dwelling older adults. She has focused her efforts on older adults vulnerable for institutional placement, particularly those with impairments due to chronic and degenerative conditions such as stroke and dementia. Dr. Stark’s thematically linked research program has direct implications for occupational therapy research and practice. What sets Dr. Stark’s research apart from most aging research is her study of the lived environment. Perhaps this is not innovative in the mind of an occupational therapy scientist; however, it is very innovative to scientists outside our discipline. In addition, Dr. Stark’s studies address a complex range of personal, environmental, and functional factors that contribute to falls in the home. Her more recent research examines the timing of falls in the progression of preclinical Alzheimer’s disease, and the association between this timing and pre-identified neuroimaging correlates. Findings from this study are likely to improve early identification of candidates likely to benefit from intervention, with the intent that such intervention may contribute to slowed trajectories of decline.

Dr. Jennifer L. Tripken is an Associate Director, Center for Healthy Aging at the National Council on Aging. In this role, Jennifer supports the expansion and sustainability of evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention programs in the community and online through collaboration with national, state, and community partners. Prior to joining NCOA, Jennifer worked for eight years as a university professor in Health Education and Promotion. Before that, Jennifer spent six years as a middle and high school Health Education teacher in New York. 

Jennifer earned her Ed.D. in Health Education at Teachers College, Columbia University, her M.Ed. in Health Education at Boston University, and her B.S. in Athletic Training at Pennsylvania State University.

Sharon R. Williams is the founder and CEO of Williams Jaxon, Consulting, LLC, a business development and training firm focused on support for community organizations, government agencies and health organizations serving Medicare/Medicare consumers. Sharon’s experience includes executive leadership in both the traditional health care and the Home and Community Based Services industries.  She is a seasoned and results oriented executive with a passion for the delivery of high quality, culturally competent, comprehensive and cost effective health care services for publicly funded consumers. Sharon was CEO at CareSource Michigan, a top 100 ranked health plan with Medicaid and Medicare product lines.  Additional leadership experiences include Vice President roles at Coventry, Amerigroup and OmniCare.  She has also served as COO for one of the nation’s leading Area Agencies on Aging.

Lisa Nicolaou is the MiHIN Cross Sector Data Sharing (SDOH) Program Director.  This new role provides leadership in the emerging Social/Technical domain to bridge the rapid escalation in demand and urgency for information surrounding social factors that influence health.  This leadership ensures alignment with national data standards, emerging best practices for Community Information Exchange (CIE) and regional and national stakeholders creating environments that allow data to flow for patients, clinicians, and policymakers. Lisa’s early experience as an Emergency Department Nurse in inner city Baltimore, cemented her convictions on how unmet social needs impact individual and population health, long before the term SDOH became commonplace.  Lisa understands the role and value that technology brings to health and social care.  From her early Nursing career with The University of Toronto and Johns Hopkins Medical Institution she went on to a master’s degree in Nursing Informatics from the University of Maryland. Her education in Nursing and Information Science allows her to bridge the divide between the social, health and technology domains. Her experience in program building, change management and healthcare transformation in Michigan provide longitudinal context and a depth of understanding necessary to take on the challenges of this new Social Technical domain.  Lisa is a Member of the Gravity Project Technical Advisory Committee. 

A career leader in the public sector and human services, Laurie Pferr is a highly regarded subject matter expert in the aging and disability services ecosystem. She is recognized as an adviser and partner who sparks, designs, and guides impactful and transformative programs and advocacy training from inception through delivery. Her political acumen and social determinants of health knowledge are critical and highly valued components of her background. From concept to execution, Laurie has worked on initiatives such as establishing the NY Connects No Wrong Door System and building out local delivery of evidence based self-management programs across the aging, health, and disability networks. Laurie performs with a collaborative style, negotiating skill, creativity, and determination, with a consistent eye on process. Prior to serving as Deputy Director for Policy, Planning, Program and Outcomes at the NYS Office for the Aging (NYSOFA), she held several key senior positions in the agency. For almost twenty years, Laurie worked in the NYS Senate, where she served as Director of the State Aging Committee for five years. Laurie holds a B.A. in Political Studies from Adelphi University and a M.P.A. from Rockefeller College at the State University of New York at Albany.

Sue Lachenmayr, MPH, CHES, is the State Program Coordinator for Maryland Living Well Center of Excellence-MAC, Inc. She has 25 years of knowledge and expertise in training, implementing, evaluating and sustaining evidence-based healthy aging/self-management programs. She establishes partnerships between healthcare entities and community-based organizations to expand access and sustainability of these programs across the State of Maryland.  Previously, she served as Senior Director of the National Council on Aging (NCOA) Center for Healthy Aging Technical Assistance Center. Prior to that, Sue oversaw evidence-based program implementation across New Jersey for the Department of Health and Senior Services.

Marc Rabner, MD, MPH is a pediatrician and preventive medicine physician. He is the Director of Clinical Applications at Audacious Inquiry and serves as a clinical advisor to the state designated health information exchanges in Maryland (CRISP), West Virginia (WVHIN), and the District of Columbia (CRISP DC). He leads the social determinants of health (SDOH) strategy and helps develop and implement SDOH tools that enhance SDOH data interoperability in each region. This includes a focus on better data sharing between healthcare and community based organizations. Dr. Rabner’s professional interests focus on the intersection of clinical care, public health, and information technology.

Dr. Rabner studied Neuroscience and Behavioral Biology at Emory University and Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania where he focused on community and immigrant health. Dr. Rabner trained in General Pediatrics at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where he still practices hospital medicine and cares for children with complex medical and social needs. To have more impact outside of the hospital walls, he received further training at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health where he completed his General Preventive Medicine and Public Health Residency and received a Master in Public Health.

Marci Phillips is the Director of Public Policy and Advocacy at the National Council on Aging.  She is responsible for federal advocacy efforts regarding legislation and appropriations affecting the Older Americans Act, economic security, hunger, older workers, elder justice, and other community services for older Americans.

Before joining NCOA in 2008, Ms. Phillips was the Legislative Policy Analyst at the National Community Action Foundation (NCAF), where she advocated on behalf of the nation’s 1,100Community Action Agencies, and she served on the personal and committee staff of a member of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce.

Ellen Schneider, MBA, is Director of Policy and Programming for the Osteoarthritis Action Alliance at the Thurston Arthritis Research Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Her areas of focus include evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention programming, osteoarthritis, healthy aging, falls prevention, and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias. Ms. Schneider manages the national process to review potential new programs for the Administration on Community Living (ACL) approved evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention program list; programs that are approved are then eligible for Title III-D and other ACL discretionary funding. For the past 14 years, Ms. Schneider worked with the National Council on Aging’s Center for Healthy Aging and ACL to disseminate evidence-based health promotion and disease prevention programs. Ellen is co-author of the 2015 National Falls Prevention Action Plan and assisted over 30 states develop statewide falls prevention coalitions. She also is Co-Principal Investigator for a grant from The Duke Endowment to implement dementia-friendly training within five hospitals in North Carolina. Through her work with NCOA and the Carolina Geriatric Workforce Enhancement Program, Ellen has worked extensively with State Health Departments and the aging services network to build infrastructure and implement healthy aging policy, guidelines, and programming. On the state level, Ellen is a founder of the NC Falls Prevention Coalition and the Coalition for a Dementia-Capable NC. She has presented at numerous national and statewide conferences across the country and won the “Best Paper of the Year” award from the Health Promotion Practice journal. She received her undergraduate and graduate degrees from the Pennsylvania State University and graduate certificate in aging from UNC-Chapel Hill.

Simona Combi managed media relations for several nonprofit research and advocacy organizations, including the Center for Global Policy Solutions and the Urban Institute. Most recently, she worked for IQ Solutions—a NIH contractor—to support the National Institute on Drug Abuse’s press team. She brings experience generating national media coverage and preparing national level spokespeople for interviews.

Daniel Puerto has been a passionate activist, community organizer and service provider servicing local New York City (NYC). His work for over 10 years has had a focus on grassroots community organizing, policy advocacy, service provision, popular education and entrepreneurship skills development focusing on LGBTQ+ and immigrant New Yorkers. Most recently, Daniel works with SAGE the nation’s largest and oldest LGBTQ+ organization focusing on programs, services and advocacy for and with LGBTQ+ older adults.