Leadership Council
Anne Basting, Director, Center on Age and Community
Rene Farias, Director of Elderly Programs, United Community Center/Centro de la Comunidad Unida
Gina Green-Harris, Executive Director, Milwaukee Area Health Education Centers (AHEC)
Gwen Jackson, Chairman Emeritus, Milwaukee Chapter of the Red Cross
Christine Kovach, Professor, School of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Sally Lundeen, Professor and Dean, UWM College of Nursing
Robin Mayrl (Officer), Vice President, Program Development Helen Bader Foundation
Beth Meyer-Arnold, (Officer) Director Luther Manor Adult Day Services
Rhonda Montgomery (Officer), Professor, Helen Bader Endowed Chair in Applied Gerontology
Yvonne Lewandowski-Moss, Executive Director, Milwaukee Aging Consortium
Joan Prince, Assistant Chancellor for Partnerships and Innovations
Stephanie Stein, Director, Milwaukee County Department on Aging
Stan Stojkovic (Lead Dean), Dean and Professor, Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, Department of Criminal Justice
Jerry Weisman, (Officer) Professor, School of Architecture and Urban Planning, University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee
Past Leadership Council Members
Anne Basting, Director, Center on Age and Community
Anne Basting (Ph.D.) is the Director of the Center on Age & Community and an Associate Professor in the Department of Theatre at the Peck School of the Arts, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee where she teaches storytelling and playwriting. Basting has written extensively on issues of aging and representation, including her book The Stages of Age: Performing Age in Contemporary American Culture. Her numerous articles and essays have been published across multiple disciplines including journals such as The Drama Review, American Theatre, and Journal of Aging Studies, and anthologies Figuring Age, Mental Wellness in Aging, the Handbook for the Humanities and Aging, and Aging and the Meaning of Time. Basting is the recipient of a Rockefeller Fellowship, a Brookdale National Fellowship, and numerous major grants for her scholarly and creative endeavors. Her creative work includes nearly a dozen plays and public performances, including The Frida Kahlo Retrospective, All the Live Long Day, Persuasion (co-written with Ping Chong), the Last Dinosaur, and Time Slips. Basting received her Ph.D. in Theatre Arts and Dance from the University of Minnesota in 1995. Basting continues to direct the TimeSlips Creative Storytelling Project, which she founded in 1998. She is currently at work on a new book, Forget Memory: Imagining a Better LIfe for People with Dementia. Basting makes numerous presentations creativity and aging across the United States.
Rene Farias, Director of Elderly Programs; United Community Center/Centro de la Comunidad Unida
Ricardo Cisneros serves as the Director of Elderly Programs at the United Community Center/Centro de la Comunidad Unida. The Senior Center at UCC serves 135 seniors daily. The Center also offers Adult Day Care specialized services for frail elders in day treatment. The Family Care Unit is contracted with Milwaukee County to manage the health care needs of 100 seniors. UCC also offers senior living with apartments for 20 families.
Gina Green-Harris, Executive Director, Milwaukee Area Health Education Centers (AHEC)
Former Program Manager at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health, Wisconsin Alzheimer’s Institute where she provided leadership and governance to guide and build the capacity of a newly developed WAI Milwaukee office. She directed a solid outreach and research program designed to provide resources and recruit minorities into research that is culturally specific to African- Americans. Under her leadership the WAI-Milwaukee office doubled the number of African Americans enrolled in the Wisconsin Registry for Alzheimer’s Prevention (WRAP), and increased the WAI’s Milwaukee presence tremendously. Her work in the community has created an atmosphere where AD is becoming a household topic. Ms Green-Harris’ work is being followed by researchers across the state and nation to learn about their outreach and recruitment model.
Ms. Green-Harris was appointed by the County Executive to serve as a member of the Family Care Management Organization Governing Board. In addition she serves as a board member with Interfaith for Older Adults, Center on Aging Communities at UWM, and Milwaukee Health Services, Incorporated. She is a member of the Milwaukee County Department on Aging’s Advisory Council, Wellness council and chairs the underserved populations committee.
She has multiple years of professional experience in minority health in several capacities including grants management, project and community development. She has worked in several disease areas including HIV/AIDS, cancer, diabetes, SLE Lupus, substance abuse and domestic violence and more. Her work in HIV (Ohio) has resulted in the development of the only HIV faith based curriculum for clergy and theological students in the AME seminaries.
Gina has a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology from Central State University and a Master’s degree in Business Administration from Franklin University.
Gwen Jackson, Chairman Emeritus, Milwaukee Chapter of the Red Cross
Gwen Jackson is very well known in our community as the consummate volunteer. Her life long commitment to civic involvement includes the following leadership roles: Chairman of the Women's Fund of the Greater Milwaukee Foundation, Chapter Chair of the Emeritus Red Cross of Greater Milwaukee, Village Adult Services (chair), National Women's Funding Network (co-chair), Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy (chair), YWCA, United Way of Greater Milwaukee, Family Service of Milwaukee, Alliance for Children and Family, Alzheimer's Association, Milwaukee County Department on Aging, Wisconsin Council of Senior Citizens, African American Women's Project among others. She has been recognized locally and nationally and has received numerous awards for her work in the community. Ms. Jackson was vice-president of human resources for Brill, Inc. (retired). She is married and has two children.
Chris Kovach (Officer), Professor, College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Christine R. Kovach, PhD, RN has done extensive clinical work and research with people who have Alzheimer's disease and other dementias. She examines practice problems from new perspectives and develops and researches innovative approaches to dementia care. Specifically, she has been responsible for: 1) opening and researching some of the first hospice households designed to care for people with late-stage dementia; 2) opening Special Care Units for midstage dementia and researching specific programmatic, environmental, and behavioral aspects of the SCU model; and c) developing theory, the "Model of Imbalance in Sensoristasis," to guide research and practice on activity pacing of people with dementia. She has over 30 publications in scientific journals and was recently funded through the RO1 mechanism for $1.1 million by the National Institute for Nursing Research for a randomized double-blinded experiment testing the effectiveness of a nursing protocol in decreasing pain in people with dementia. She also received funding from the Helen Bader Foundation to support a double-blinded randomized experiment testing the effectiveness of an activity pacing intervention in decreasing agitation of people with dementia. Her current funded studies include a study of factors associated with successfully implementing changes in pain management in nine nursing homes (awarded to the Training Research Institute by the Administration on Aging) and factors associated with creating and sustaining culture change from the Jewish Foundation and Care Center.
Dr. Kovach is a section editor for the Journal of Gerontological Nursing and serves as an Editorial Board Member for the journals Research in Nursing & Health and the American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias. She has served as a proposal reviewer for the National Institute for Nursing Research, the Alzheimer's Association, Extendicare Foundation and the Israel Science Foundation. Her book Late-Stage Dementia Care: A Basic Guide is published by Taylor & Francis Publishing. She is a fellow in the Gerontological Society of America and serves as a mentor for the Clinical Medicine section of this organization. She will be inducted as a fellow in the American Academy of Nursing in fall of 2006.
Refereed Publications
Pieper, M.J.C., Achterberg, W.P., Francke, A.L., van der Steen, J.T., Scherder, E.J. and Kovach, C.R. (2011). The implementation of the serial trial intervention for pain and challenging behaviour in advanced dementia patients (STA OP): a clustered randomized controlled trial. BMC Geriatrics, 11:12
Kovach, C.R., Woods, D.L. Logan, B.R., & Raff, H. (2011) Diurnal Variation of Cortisol in People with Dementia: Relationship to Cognition and Illness Burden . American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias.26(2), 145-150. (PubMed NIHMS260397)
Kovach, C.R., Logan, B.R., Joosse, L.L., & Noonan, P.E. (In Press). Failure to Identify Behavioral Symptoms of People with Dementia and the Need for Follow-Up Physical Assessment. Research in Gerontological Nursing
Kovach, C.R., Logan, B.R., Simpson, M., & Reynolds, S. (2010). Factors Associated with Time to Identify Physical Problems of Nursing Home Residents with Dementia. American Journal of Alzheimer’s Disease & Other Dementias. 25(4), 317-323. (PMID: 20237337; PMCID: PMC2884077).
Kovach, C.R., Simpson, M., Reitmaier, A., Johnson, A., & Kelber, S. (2010). Do Personality Traits Predict Work Outcomes of Nursing Home Staff? Research in Gerontological Nursing. Vol. 3 No. 4, 253-261.
Editorial/Commentaries
Kovach , C.R. (2010). What’s the Rush? Internal Validity is not a Trivial Pursuit. Research in Gerontological Nursing.3(1),2-4.
Book Chapters:
Kovach, C.R. (In Press). Assessing pain and unmet need in patients with Advanced Dementia: The role of the Serial Trial Intervention (STI). In. R. Moore (Ed). Handbook of Pain and Palliative Care Across the Life Course. Springer Publishers.
Scholarly Presentations:
May 2011 Developing a Logical, Cohesive Intervention. and Launching a Successful Research Career. Duquesne University. Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
May 2011 Coping with Challenging Behaviors. Preconference workshop with T. Snow at Wisconsin Network Conference on Alzheimer’s Disease and Related Dementias. Wisconsin Dells, Wisconsin.
December 2010 Panelist for U.S. Senate Special Committee on Aging Forum “Until There’s a Cure: How to Help Alzheimer’s Patienys and Families NOW.” Washington DC. Also broadcast on CSPAN.
November 2010 The Systematic Development of Health Care Interventions: Problem Identification to Efficacy. Robert Wood Johnson Nurse Faculty Fellowship Meeting, Washington DC.
November 2010 Factors Associated with Time to Identify Physical Problems of Nursing Home Residents with Dementia. 63rd Annual Scientific Meeting of the Gerontological Society of America, New Orleans, LA.
October 2010 Effects of the Serial Trial Intervention on Discomfort in Dementia. University of Pennsylvania School of Nursing. Philadelphia, PA.
September 2010 Physical Problem Identification in People with Dementia. 2010 State of the Science Congress on Nursing Research. Sponsored by the Council for the Advancement of Nursing Science. Washington DC.
August 2010 Ways to Maximize Return on Center Investments. World Café Format Leader and Summary Presentation. NIH Center Director’s Meeting, Washington DC
Grants/Contract-Funded Activities:
2/1/07-11/30/11 Effect of a Pain Protocol on Discomfort in Dementia DHHS PHS NIH NINR [5R01NR07765-05] $400,449 Current DC
$2,009,093 Total Award
09/30/07-06/30/12 Center for Enhancement of Self-Management in Individuals and Families. DHHS PHS NIH NINR. 1P20NR010674-01 (Schiffman PI). Methods Core Director 15% time.
2010-2012. The Quality of End of Life Care for Persons with Advanced Dementia. Helen Bader Foundation. (N.Bentur and S. Sternberg PIs). Consultant.
Editorial/Review Boards:
2005-Present Study Section Member. National Institutes for Health
2003-2010 Editorial Board Member, Research in Nursing & Health
2003-present Editorial Board Member, American Journal of Alzheimer's Disease and Other Dementias
2006-present Editorial Board Member, Research in Gerontological Nursing
Sally P. Lundeen, PhD, RN, FAAN, Professor and Dean, College of Nursing, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
lundeen@uwm.edu, 414-229-4189
Dr. Lundeen has focused her entire professional career on the implementation and evaluation of community based nursing practice models in vulnerable urban communities. She has undertaken this work in both academic and practice settings in Illinois and Wisconsin. As Executive Director of the Erie Family Health Center (1977-1985) she expanded a part-time "free clinic" in a Hispanic community in Chicago to a multiple site federally funded community health center which continues to flourish today.
Her appointment as a faculty member at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee moved this work into the academic nursing center arena. At UWM, she has founded and supervised the development of four community nursing centers and was the Founder and first director of the UWM Institute for Urban Health Partnerships. She also served as the Associate Dean for Practice and Interim Dean before her appointment in 2001 as Dean of the School of Nursing.
Dr. Lundeen's research and publications have focused on community nursing centers, computerized clinical documentation for community nursing practice, transformational leadership, and health policy. She is passionate about professional nursing and improving the health status of vulnerable urban populations. Dr. Lundeen has been the recipient of numerous awards from consumer groups as well as professional organizations, including a Primary Care Public Policy Fellowship from HRSA, the NLN Lavinia Dock Award, the Wisconsin Governor's Primary Health Care Educator Award, the 2000 Milwaukee Business Journal Woman of Influence Award, the MDNA 2002 Service Award for Excellence in Nursing Management and Administration, and the NNCC 2004 Champion Award for her pioneering leadership of the nurse-managed health center movement. She was most recently elected first Board Chair of the recently-established Wisconsin Center for Nursing.
Robin Mayrl (Officer), Vice President, Program Development Helen Bader Foundation
Robin Bieger Mayrl is vice president of program development at the Helen Bader Foundation, where she has worked since 1992. Her responsibilities include managing the Foundation's Alzheimer's Disease and Dementia program area, which awards $1.6 million annually to projects that help improve the quality of life for Wisconsin's older adults and their families. The Foundation supports programs related to community-based programming, applied research, training, and public policy education.
Prior to joining the Foundation, Bieger Mayrl had been director of the Milwaukee County Department on Aging. She holds a Bachelors degree in sociology from Daemen College in Buffalo, N.Y., and a Masters of Social Work from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee.
Beth Meyer-Arnold, Director Luther Manor Adult Day Services
Beth Meyer-Arnold received her BSN from Marquette University and her MS in Nursing from the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, focusing on Gerontology and Community. Beth currently is Director of Luther Manor Adult Day Services in Milwaukee, WI. Luther Manor has two adult day centers; 1) an adult day health center, that includes a separate Alzheimer's dementia program, at an urban site serving 55 participants a day; and 2) a unique new health ministry program in a rural county that has blended care for cognitive and physically disabled adults of all ages, and a parish nurse program provided for two Lutheran congregations. Ms. Meyer-Arnold has presented extensively on program development, elderly health service delivery, dementia care services and clinical interventions for care of persons with dementia. Beth has completed research in the area of independence in activities of daily living in institutionalized elderly, bathing experiences of persons with dementia, caregiver use of overnight respite and it's relationship to caregiver burden, and the effects of benevolent touch with persons with dementia. Beth has also authored and received grants totaling more than $600,000.
Rhonda Montgomery, Professor, Helen Bader Endowed Chair in Applied Gerontology, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Rhonda J.V. Montgomery, an internationally known scholar in aging, is the first person to occupy the new chair in gerontology at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee endowed by The Helen Bader Foundation. The chair is within the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare. At UWM, Montgomery holds faculty appointments both in that school and in the Sociology Department of the College of Letters and Science. Montgomery comes to UWM from the University of Kansas, where she was chair of the Ph.D. in Gerontology program and director of the Gerontology Center at the university. During the last 20 years, Montgomery has conducted scores of regional and national studies focusing on public policy and the role of the family in providing long-term care. For 11 years, she has evaluated demonstration projects in 33 states that are operating through grants from The Administration on Aging. The funding allows states to try new ways to provide training and support to caregivers who deal with people with dementia. Montgomery, who has worked with several UWM faculty in the past, looks forward to continuing her cross-disciplinary approach at the university. She also sees Milwaukee as an ideal location to continue her community-based research.
She can also be reached through her Helen Bader School Of Social Sciences Homepage.
Yvonne Lewandowski-Moss, Executive Director, Milwaukee Aging Consortium
Yvonne Lewandowski-Moss is the Executive Director of the Milwaukee Aging Consortium. The Consortium is a nonprofit membership organization of 160 agencies, businesses and professionals in the field of aging who work to improve the lives of older adults in Milwaukee County and southeastern Wisconsin. Programs offered by the Consortium provide opportunities for learning, collaboration, networking, and communication among diverse professionals to better serve our older residents.
Dr. Joan M. Prince, Ph.D. Vice Chancellor for Partnerships and Innovation
Dr. Joan M. Prince, Vice Chancellor for Partnerships and Innovation at the University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee is a long time community activist and has been a prominent figure in advocating for change through service and action oriented methods. Through her work with numerous community based organizations, corporations, community non-profits, health care organizations, and K-20 educational institutions, she has been in the forefront for over 30+ years in setting community agenda and policy.
The Office of Partnerships and Innovation exists to foster an innovative vision, implementation and maintenance of campus-community connections, through a deepened commitment and mutual respect between and among our internal and external partners.
She can also be reached through her Partnerships and Innovation homepage.
Stephanie Stein, Director, Milwaukee County Department on Aging
In 1993, Stephanie Sue Stein was appointed to direct the Milwaukee County Department on Aging. Her 26 years of service to elders is exemplified by advocacy and collaboration-building. As Director of the Department, she oversees 190 staff and works with the 16-member Commission on Aging, the County Executive, and the County Board of Supervisors to ensure that the lives of elders are the best that they can be. Stephanie serves on two national boards and speaks, writes, and lectures on aging issues.
Stan Stojkovic, Dean and Professor, Helen Bader School of Social Welfare, University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee
Stan Stojkovic is Dean and Professor of Criminal Justice in the Helen Bader School of Social Welfare at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM). He received his Associate of Arts degree in Police Science from the Milwaukee Area Technical College in 1975, a Bachelor's of Science degree in criminal justice from the University of Wisconsin-Platteville in 1977, a Master's of Science degree in criminal justice from Michigan State University in 1981, and a Ph.D in Social Science, with cognates in criminal justice and criminology, public administration, and philosophy from Michigan State University in 1984. He has been on the criminal justice faculty at UWM since the fall, 1983.
He is author, co-author and co-editor of six books on various topics in the criminal justice field (Criminal Justice Organizations: Administration and Management, with David Kalinich and John Klofas, third edition, published by Thomson Publishing Company; The Administration and Management of Criminal Justice Organizations: A Book of Readings, edited with John Klofas and David Kalinich, fourth edition, published by Waveland Press; Corrections: An Introduction, with Rick Lovell, second edition, published by Anderson Publishing Company; Crime and Justice in the Year 2010, edited with John Klofas, published by West/Wadsworth Publishing Company; and Correctional Leadership: A Cultural Perspective, with Mary Ann Farkas, published by Thomson Publishing Company). All of these books are widely used across the country in colleges and universities. He is also working on a sixth book entitled Managing Special Populations in Jails and Prisons with the Civic Research Institute.
In addition, Professor Stojkovic is author or co-author of over 40 academic publications, book chapters, monographs, and other publications. He is a frequent guest on radio talk shows, has made numerous television appearances concerning crime related issues, and has served as a consultant to many police agencies and correctional organizations. For the past sixteen years, he has been a trainer for the Wisconsin Department of Corrections. He has co-coordinated the California Leadership Institute for the California Department of Corrections for the past ten years. The institute is composed of a six-week curriculum for upper level correctional administrators. As of fall, 2003, the institute has graduated over 325 participants. The institute is the only one of its kind in the country within the field of corrections.
In the fall of 1999, Professor Stojkovic was appointed as a Commissioner on the Wisconsin Law Enforcement Accreditation Group (WILEAG), an affiliate of the national Commission on the Accreditation of Law Enforcement Agencies (CALEA). This group is working toward the development of performance standards for the law enforcement community within the state of Wisconsin. In the spring of 2004, he was chosen as one of three finalists, through the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences, to be a panelist for a conference sponsored by the United Nations to assist war torn countries in the development of criminal justice systems to be held in Bangkok, Thailand in the spring of 2005.
Gerald Weisman, Professor, Department of Architecture
Education
University of Michigan: Ph.D. in Psychology & Architecture 1979
University of Michigan: M.Arch. 1970
Carnegie-Mellon University: B.Arch. 1969
Teaching Area
General Design Studio, Environments for Older Persons, Environmental Cognition, Philosophical Bases of Environmental Design Research
Memberships
Steering Committee: AIA Design for Aging Center
Vice President: Society for Advancement of Gerontological Environments (SAGE)
Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA)
Gerontological Society of America
Academic and Professional Honors
Research Award, UWM Graduate School/UWM Foundation
Citation, Progressive Architecture Awards Program Award from AIA International Design Book Fair Competition
Teaching Experience
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee: 1983-present
Pennsylvania State University: 1978-1983
Kansas State University: 1975-1978
Professional Experience
National consultations on projects for the elderly and cognitively impaired.
Research Interests
Programming, design, and evaluation of environments for the elderly and cognitively impaired. Along with the UW-M colleague Uriel Cohen, he co-directs the Instiitute on Aging & Environment. With support from the national office of the Alzheimer's Association, the Retirement Research Foundation, and the Helen Bader Foundation, the Institute on Aging & Environment conducts programming and evaluation studies and provides technical assistance to dementia care providers engaged in the design of innovative new facilities or renovations. Weisman previously served as environmental consultant to a major research initiative on specialized facilities for people with dementia sponsored by the National Institute on Aging. He is a member of the Steering committee of the American Institute of Architects' newly established Design for Aging Center and Vice President of SAGE (Society for advancement of Gerontological Environments), a national organization committed to reform of regulations for nursing home design. He most recently served as Principle Investigator for a project, funded by the Helen Bader Foundation of Milwaukee, to develop planning and design guidelines for dementia day care facilities.
Publications (Selected)
Weisman, G. (2001). The place of people in architectural design. In A. Pressman (Ed.), The architect's portable design handbook: A guide to best practices. New York: McGraw Hill.
Weisman, G.,Chaudhury, H. & Diaz Moore, K. (2000). "Theory and Practice of place: Toward an integrative model". In R. Rubenstein, M. Moss, & M. Kleban (Eds.), The many dimensions of aging:
Essays in honor of M. Powell Lawton. New York: Springer
Norris-Baker, L., Wiesman, G., Lawton, M.P., Sloane, P. (2000). Assessing special care units for dementia: The professional environmental assessment protocol. In S. Danforth & E. Steinfeld (Eds.), Measuring enabling environments. New York: Plenum.
Weisman, G (1997). Environments for older persons with cognitive impairments: Toward an integration of research and practice. In G. Moore & R. Marans (Eds.), Advances in environment, behavior, and design: V.4.. New York: Plenum.
Lawton, M. P., Weisman, G., Sloane, P. & Calkins, M. (1997). Assessing environments for older people with chronic illness. In J. Teresi, et al. (Eds.), Measurement in elderly chronic care populations. New York: Springer.
Kovach, C., Weisman, G., Chaudhury, H, & Calkins, M. (1997). Impacts of a therapeutic environment for dementia care. Journal of Alzheimer's Care & Research, May/June. Pp. 99-110.
Lawton, M.P., Weisman, G., Chaudhury, H & Calkins, M. (1997). "Assessing environments for older people with chronic illness". In J. Teresi, M. P. Lawton, D. Holmes & M Ory (Eds.), Measurement in elderly chronic care populations (pp. 193-209). New York: Springer.
Weisman, G., Calkins, M. & Slaone, P. (1994). The environmental context of special care. Alzheimer's disease & associatec disorders: An international journal. V. 8: Supplement 1, 308-320.
Cohen, U & Weisman, G (1991). Holding on to home: Designing environments for people with dementia. Baltimore, MD: John Hopkins
Research and Creative Activities
Along with Institute on Aging & Environment colleagues, Weisman has, over the past ten years, been involved in over 70 consulting projects in the U.S. and Canada including a new replacement campus for the Philadelphia Geriatric Center and the Helen Bader Center at the Milwaukee Jewish Home.
Service
Co-Director, Institute on Aging & Environment
Member, Leadership Council, UWM Design for Aging Center
Member of the Departmental Executive Committee; Steering Committee of the AIA Design for Aging Center; Reviewer of manuscripts for Journal of Architecture & Planning Research and the Environmental Design Research Association (EDRA) Board of Directors
