Ann is the Senior Program Manager, for Medicare at NCOA where she helps local, state and regional organizations develop and implement strategies to find, counsel and assist Medicare beneficiaries apply and enroll in benefits for which they may be eligible.

Over the past 25 years Ann has had the opportunity to work in many parts of the health care industry including managed care, patient assistance programs, and provider and sales force relations.  Prior to joining NCOA, Ann managed the operations for the State Health Insurance Assistance Program (SHIP) in Montgomery County, Maryland helping the most vulnerable populations gain access to the health care benefits and services.  

Ann received her B.S. in Health Care Management from Kings College in Wilke-Barre, PA and an MBA from the University of Notre Dame in South Bend, IN.

Brandy Bauer is Director of the Center for Benefits Access at the National Council on Aging, where she works with community organizations and state agencies across the country to promote benefits for older adults, identify strategies to improve the financial security of vulnerable seniors, and educate consumers about scams targeting older adults. She has worked in the field of aging for 11 years. Prior to that, she spent a decade in the international health and human service sectors, working on improving access to services for vulnerable and marginalized populations, including refugee and war trauma survivors in Europe, and as a humanitarian aid worker in Afghanistan.

Genevieve Waterman serves as the director of the Center for Economic & Financial Security at the National Council on Aging (NCOA), where she leads initiatives on economic security, housing, and employment in later life. During her tenure at NCOA, Dr. Waterman has led innovative programs to help low-income older adults create customized plans to achieve financial security and curriculums that educate older adults to avoid scams and financial exploitation. Dr. Waterman also developed the strategic vision of NCOA’s Age Well Planner, a digital tool that guides individuals through key decisions designed to make their money last longer and address health care needs.

Genevieve holds a Doctorate of Social Work from the University of Southern California Suzanne Dworak-Peck School of Social Work. She also holds a Master of Aging Services Management from the University of Southern California Davis School of Gerontology and a Master of Applied Gerontology from Towson University’s Center for Productive Aging.

Maura Porcelli is the Senior Director of the Senior Community Service Employment Program. She is based in the Arlington, VA office where she oversees the administration of SCSEP and develops strategy to ensure effective job training and job search support is provided to mature job seekers.

Denise Minter is an artist, a writer, a dedicated worker, a good friend, a mother, a daughter, a sister, a cancer thriver/survivor and a Wisdom Qigong teacher. Denise works at Felton Institute, as a Content Creator and Researcher to tell the story of the oldest non-sectarian non-profit in San Francisco, CA.

Marian has been with the Nashville Public Library and involved in efforts to close the digital divide for 26 years. She has combined her love for teaching with her role as an IT professional and the two fuel her passion for helping those in the Nashville Community who have yet to become 21^st Century Digital Citizens.

As Manager of Digital Inclusion Initiatives, Marian coordinates the library’s digital literacy outreach program and develops partnerships with organizations such a West End Home Foundation, National Council on Aging, Metropolitan Development and Housing Agency, Fifty Forward and others to deliver digital inclusion programs to Nashville’s older residents within their local neighborhoods or where they currently receive services. During the pandemic, Marian’s team initiated a “Telehealth for Older Adults” program that earned The Nashville Public Library an Urban Libraries Council TOP Innovator Award.

Cathy Spensley, LCSW is the Senior Division Director at the Felton Institute, a large nonprofit social service agency in the San Francisco Bay Area. Cathy develops and oversees programs in aging services, older adult mental health, workforce development, and advocacy. She oversees the Senior Community Service Employment Program (SCSEP) in San Francisco, under NOCA, as well as the program in other SF Bay Area counties. Cathy is a founder member of the San Francisco Tech Council, a unique multi-stake collaboration to support digital inclusivity for all, as well as a founder of the Felton Tech Squad to inspire, connect, and train older adults in California being left out of the digital world. She continues to be dedicated to the field of aging and to support programs that empower older adults. Cathy has a BA in Communications from American University and a Masters in Social Work from UC Berkeley.

Amy Yu is the Program Director of Workforce and Engagement Services at Felton Institute.  She has worked with older adults her entire professional career and has experience in operations and programs management. She has direct oversight of the Senior Community Service Employment Program in multiple counties in California.

Samantha Sorscher joined Fiverr in 2021 as a leader on Fiverr's Community Team with the responsibility for leading global Community and Social Impact efforts. Samantha's team is responsible for creating and executing meaningful strategies related to taking the potential of the Fiverr marketplace and extending it to disadvantaged communities. Prior to joining Fiverr, Samantha has spent time working on issues-based and electoral grassroots campaigns and within the education technology space.

Susan Vega is Alivio Medical Center’s Programs Manager.  She leads a team of staff and volunteers helping older adults and families in the community to understand the public benefit programs and health insurance options, apply for benefits, enroll in and use their healthcare plans. Ms. Vega also manages Alivio’s Chicago Family Case Management, Women, Infant and Children (WIC -  supplemental nutrition program) and the Community Health Education and Promotion team.

Susan Vega has been assisting older adults and their families at Alivio Medical Center since 2004.  Her role includes coordination of activities of volunteers and staff through the National Council on Aging’s Benefit Enrollment Center, Get Covered Illinois Certified Application Counselor program, Senior Health Insurance Program as well as the operation of the Pilsen Satellite Senior Center at Casa Maravilla. 

Alivio is a federally qualified health center (FQHC) / Community Health Center, serving ten neighborhoods which are predominately Mexican and Mexican-American on Chicago’s southwest side as well as the suburban communities of Cicero and Berwyn.  Founded in 1998 Alivio provides primary and specialty healthcare, support and preventive services in its three full-service facilities in Pilsen and Berwyn as well as three school-based clinics in Pilsen and Little Village.  Alivio’s mission includes service as well as advocacy around access to healthcare, as well as immigration policies and workforce development.

A key focus of the work of Ms. Vega has done has been developing public and private partnerships and engaging the hard-to-reach Latino community. 

Ms. Vega has a Bachelor of Arts degree from St. Xavier, in Chicago.  

Jerrie O’Rourke, MSW, LISW-S, Corporate Director for Senior Care Management for National Church Residences.  Received her Masters in Social Work from Syracuse University and licensed since 2003. 

Jerrie has over twenty-seven (27) years of healthcare and leadership experience with home and community-based programs for underserved populations.  As a subject matter expert for population health methodologies, Jerrie is responsible for identifying an operational appropriate solution for clinical and non-clinical programs for at risk populations that is inclusive of improving access to aging in place models for older adults and their loved ones. With her industry knowledge and experience including strategic planning and partnerships, public speaking, policy and program development specific to healthcare initiatives, she launched the National Church Residences NCOA’s Benefits Enrollment Center in 2019, expanding the footprint served to statewide in through the COVID-19 pandemic. We have successfully expanded public and private partnerships to include local VA, homeless shelter programs, local firehouse community paramedicine programs, physician practices, long-term services and support providers and not only our own Affordable Housing residential program through HUD, but also other Assisted Living and Independent Living organizations. 

Under Jerrie’s leadership other programs include Ohio Money Follow’s the Person program, Journey Navigator program, Community Service Coordinator programs, and other population health initiatives to assist seniors and adults with disabilities age their way and where they choose. 

Vivian leads the National Council on Aging’s ecosystem of national and community partnerships, external engagement of NCOA’s advocacy and equity focus, and programs focused on vulnerable populations of older adults. 

For over a decade, Nava-Schellinger has used equity as a baseline principle, whether working on large-scale reimbursement programs focused on Medicare/Medicaid populations, securing funding for health literacy programs to drive Affordable Care Act (ACA) outreach in vulnerable communities, or advocating for greater health and economic security across the lifespan for underrepresented populations.

A proud Tejana, born and raised along the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, Nava-Schellinger has successfully merge business strategy, development, organizational management, and health equity to ensure that all communities have access to the information they need to make informed decisions about their health and financial well-being. 

Nava-Schellinger is a graduate of the University of Texas at El Paso (B.A. Political Science, M.S. National Security Studies), and the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University (J.D.)

As President and CEO of the National Council on Aging, Ramsey Alwin is leading a nationwide movement to ensure equitable aging for every American. 

Building on NCOA’s 70 years of service and advocacy for older adults, Alwin is renewing the organization’s commitment to improving the lives of millions, especially those who are struggling. She is sparking critical conversations about the resources every American deserves to age well—and what needs to change to ensure all have access.

A seasoned thought leader and policy advocate, Alwin has changed the way people think about older adult poverty and economic security. She designed a new measure of economic security for older adults that better accounts for out-of-pocket health costs and worked to introduce the Measuring American Poverty Act in Congress to redefine the federal poverty measure for the older population. Thanks to Alwin’s efforts, the U.S. Census Bureau formally implemented the Supplemental Poverty Measure nationwide, virtually doubling the elder poverty count and better demonstrating true needs among this population. 

Prior to leading NCOA, Alwin directed financial resilience global thought leadership at AARP and served as Director of National Economic Security Programs at Wider Opportunities for Women. Currently, she serves on the Executive Committee of the UN NGO Committee on Aging, the America250 Health and Wellness Advisory Council, and the National Academy of Social Insurance Finance Committee.

As President and CEO of the National Council on Aging, Ramsey Alwin is leading a nationwide movement to ensure equitable aging for every American. 

Building on NCOA’s 70 years of service and advocacy for older adults, Alwin is renewing the organization’s commitment to improving the lives of millions, especially those who are struggling. She is sparking critical conversations about the resources every American deserves to age well—and what needs to change to ensure all have access.

A seasoned thought leader and policy advocate, Alwin has changed the way people think about older adult poverty and economic security. She designed a new measure of economic security for older adults that better accounts for out-of-pocket health costs and worked to introduce the Measuring American Poverty Act in Congress to redefine the federal poverty measure for the older population. Thanks to Alwin’s efforts, the U.S. Census Bureau formally implemented the Supplemental Poverty Measure nationwide, virtually doubling the elder poverty count and better demonstrating true needs among this population. 

Prior to leading NCOA, Alwin directed financial resilience global thought leadership at AARP and served as Director of National Economic Security Programs at Wider Opportunities for Women. Currently, she serves on the Executive Committee of the UN NGO Committee on Aging, the America250 Health and Wellness Advisory Council, and the National Academy of Social Insurance Finance Committee.

Deborah M. Royster serves as Assistant Director, Office for Older Americans, at the U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau ("the Bureau"). In this role, Ms. Royster leads a team of talented, mission-driven professionals to advance the mission of the Office for Older Americans to help protect older consumers across the nation from financial harm, and to help older consumers make sound decisions as they grow older. 

Prior to joining the Office for Older Americans, Ms. Royster served as Chief Executive Officer of Seabury Resources for Aging, where she led a team of approximately 125 employees to execute Seabury's nonprofit mission to provide comprehensive social support services, including affordable housing, transportation, case management, and nutrition services, to more thank 15,000 older adults and family caregivers in the Washington, D.C. metropolitan region. 

In her professional career, Ms. Royster has served in senior legal and executive management positions in private, nonprofit, and government sectors, focusing on consumer-oriented issues, including health and aging services, telecommunications, and public utilities. As Regional Counsel and Vice President, Government Relations, of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Mid-Atlantic States, Inc., Ms. Royster led the Kaiser Permanente Mid-Atlantic region's efforts to provide access to affordable health coverage for small businesses, individuals, and families. As Senior Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of RCN Corporation, Ms. Royster led RCN's efforts to bring competitive broadband services to consumers in major U.S. markets. In addition, as Deputy General Counsel of Pepco Holdings, Inc., Ms. Royster managed regulatory issues affecting consumers in the District of Columbia, Maryland, and Delaware. 

Immediately prior to joining Seabury Resources for Aging, she served as General Counsel to the District of Columbia Department of Aging and Community Living. In that role, she served as Chair of the agency's Elder Abuse Prevention Committee, and she also led the agency's efforts to implement strategies to implement community services programming focusing on elder abuse prevention and awareness, including financial exploitation. 

Ms. Royster's professional career also includes and extensive record of civic involvement serving as a member of the governing board of nonprofit organizations, including the American Society on Aging; Leading Age; Montgomery County (MD) Commission on Aging; Forest Hills DC; Center for Nonprofit Advancement; and St. Ann's Center for Children, Youth, and Families. She is also a member of the Patuxent River (MD) Chapter of The Links, Incorporated. 

Ms. Royster received a Bachelor of Science degree, magna cum laude, from the University of Maryland, College Park. She is also a graduate of the University of Virginia School of Law. She is a member of the Bar of the District of Columbia. 

Latrice Felder Williams is the Director of Membership and Communications with Grantmakers In Aging. She has an extensive background in community relations, media relations, strategic planning, campaign management, and event coordination with non-profits and associations. She has coordinated member relations and volunteer retention efforts and secured sponsorship opportunities for various programs. Prior to her role at GIA, Latrice headed the Marketing Communications department for the National Association of Campus Activities. In her most recent role, she served as Public Information and Program Manager for the South Carolina Heart Gallery, a program and community exhibit program created to find permanent homes for children in foster care. 

Hector L. Ortiz, Ph.D. is Senior Policy Analyst at the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s Office for Older Americans where he leads research projects on financial literacy and well-being, retirement security, and elder financial exploitation.  Recently, Dr. Ortiz provided technical advice and expertise to the U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging on these topics. Prior to joining the CFPB, he worked at the National Council on Aging, where he managed research and program evaluation on benefits access and economic security initiatives for low-income older adults. Dr. Ortiz is a graduate of the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs of Syracuse University.

Jan is Professor of Gerontology and Director of the Gerontology Institute in the McCormack Graduate School of Policy and Global Studies at the University of Massachusetts Boston. Her team produces and distributes the Elder Index, a cost-of-living measure for older adults in every county throughout the U.S. 

Professor Mutchler conducts research on socioeconomic, cultural, and family-based factors as they relate to outcomes central to well-being in later life, including health, financial well-being, and family relationships. She is a Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America (Behavioral and Social Sciences Section) and serves on the editorial boards of the Journal of Aging & Social Policy and Research on Aging. 

Dr. Mutchler earned her PhD in Sociology, with a specialization in demography, at the University of Texas Austin.

Anne Posner is a Senior Program Officer at RRF Foundation for Aging. Anne’s work at the Foundation focuses on affordable and supportive housing, economic security for older people and organizational capacity building for organizations serving older individuals. Anne previously oversaw aging services at Catholic Charities in the metropolitan Chicago region and was the program director at AgeOptions, the Area Agency on Aging for suburban Chicago for nine years. Immediately before joining RRF, Anne served at the Director of Health Equity at the Chicago Department of Public Health.  Anne has a MA from the University of Chicago’s Crown School of Social Work, Policy and Practice and a BA from Carleton College.

Vivian Nava-Schellinger, a proud Tejana, born and raised along the U.S.-Mexico border in El Paso, Texas, attended and graduated from Hispanic Serving Institutions (HSIs) all her life.  Nava-Schellinger, graduated from the University of Texas at El Paso, with a Bachelor’s of Arts in Political Science and Legal Reasoning, a Master’s of Science in National Security Studies from the University of Texas at El Paso, and a Juris Doctorate from the Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University, in Phoenix, Arizona.  Previously, Nava-Schellinger, worked in higher education advocating for access to educational opportunities for underrepresented populations while directing admissions at Sandra Day O’Connor College of Law at Arizona State University and at Howard University School of Law in Washington, D.C. 

Nava-Schellinger, has utilized her legal training to efficiently and successfully merge business strategy, development, organizational management, and health policy to ensure that all communities have access to the information they need to make informed decisions about their healthcare, economic security, and daily lives. Before her tenure at the National Council on Aging (NCOA), Nava-Schellinger, worked in partnership and fund development within the non-profit sector for an organization aimed at reaching the hard-to-reach and connecting them to health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Additionally, Nava-Schellinger worked in the private sector on the development and design of large-scale reimbursement patient assistance programs for low-income adults. At NCOA, she leads the organization’s ecosystem of national and community partnerships, external engagement of NCOA’s policy priorities with partners, and programming focused on vulnerable populations of older adults with equity as a baseline principle for restoring greater health and economic security for all.

Vivian resides in Washington, DC with her husband Jake, and their two rescue dogs (Fernando and Phil-Chepito).

Erin Kee McGovern, JD, is a Director of Programs, Center for Benefits Access at the National Council on Aging (NCOA).  Erin oversees NCOA’s Benefits Enrollment Centers and Senior SNAP Enrollment Initiative. These two programs are aimed at significantly increasing older adults’ participation in Medicaid, Medicare Savings Programs (MSP), Extra Help (Part D Low Income Subsidy/LIS), Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), and Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) through community-based outreach and enrollment initiatives. Erin provides training to a nationwide network of social service providers on eligibility and application guidelines for these key benefits programs. Erin also provides recommendations on proposed federal legislation and regulations, particularly on how changes will impact the most vulnerable people. In 2013, she published an article on increasing SNAP participation at farmers’ markets in the Clearing House Review: Journal of Poverty Law and Policy. Erin graduated with honors from the College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, earned her Juris Doctor at the University of South Carolina School of Law, Columbia, SC, and her Master’s in Environmental Law and Policy at Vermont Law School, South Royalton, VT.

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.