Addressing Senior Hunger, Nutrition, and Well-Being: Insights & Resources for the Aging Network

Susan is the Senior Director for NCOA’s Research and Evaluation (R&E) Group. She manages all NCOA research to ensure its standards and quality. She leads Social Impact methodology, as well as building out the R&E group across NCOA, so research findings are incorporated and leveraged in all of our work. The R&E group supports NCOA programs with contracted research and evaluation, conducts research using the Health and Retirement Study (HRS) to create the economic security and poverty index, and  responds to enterprise-wide requests for research, evaluation, and data insights.

Susan is a trusted advisor on strategy and policy with a focus on health and education policy and vulnerable populations. She has experience with quantitative and qualitive data analysis and project management. She is a certified focus group moderator, facilitates conversations with stakeholders, and conducts in-depth interviews with C Level executives.

Susan spent 10 years working at AARP, in the State Research Division conducting member and public opinion polling on issues and priorities for those age 50+. At the national level, she contributed to the Divided We Fail campaign, Medicare Part D positioning, efforts to prevent the privatization of Social Security, AARP segmentation research for African Americans, and contributed to AARP brand research. She also served as the Interim State Director at AARP Iowa in 2007 and 2008, as well as AARP South Dakota in 2005. She advocated with state legislators, governors, and stakeholders to bring attention to older adult issues and priorities, including testifying at public hearings. 

More recently, she spent 6 years as Vice President at Kauffman and Associates Inc, a small professional services firm with a focus on health and education policy for Native American and Indigenous people. In this role, Susan worked with federal agencies including Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Food and Drug Administration, Department of Education, National Science Foundation, Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration, Department of Interior, Indian Health Services, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Health and Human Services Office of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, and the Department of Justice, as well as states, tribes, and philanthropic organizations.

Susan is a political economist with a master’s degree in International Economic Development from American University and a doctoral degree in Political Science from Michigan State University, with a focus on research methods and health policy.

Keri Lipperini is the Director in the Office of Nutrition and Health Promotion Programs, within the Administration for Community Living’s, Administration on Aging.  For over 25 years, she has worked in health and wellness, 20 of those years she has been working specifically with the aging and disabilities populations. Prior to her work at AoA, Ms. Lipperini served as Program Manager for Calvert County Maryland where she oversaw Calvert’s health promotion and nutrition programs. Keri is a former United States Navy Hospital Corpsman. She holds Masters in Public Administration (MPA) with Health Care focus from Troy State University and Bachelors of Science degree in Health Care Administration from Southern Illinois University.

Kathryn started her professional career in nutrition while in college where she worked at Wayne County Hospital in Monticello, KY, as a kitchen supervisor. She eventually became Director of Food and Nutritional Services and served in that role for 18 years. As the only dietitian at the hospital, in addition to managing food services, she provided all the clinical dietitian duties as well, in addition to serving as the community liaison within the county and neighboring counties. During her tenure at Wayne County Hospital, Kathryn implemented a system for better identification of malnutrition and trained hospital staff regarding clinical and physical indicators of nutrition and coders on how to code for malnutrition. Three years ago, Kathryn was part of a planning group that started a soup kitchen in her community. Kathryn has a BS in Dietetics and an MA in Community Nutrition from Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond, KY.