Healthy Aging Speaker Series
The Healthy Aging Speaker Series showcases the latest in aging research coming from CSU faculty and students. These lunch-and-learn-style talks occur on a monthly basis and feature speakers who specialize in biological, cognitive, psychological, social, and behavioral factors of aging.
UT Austin Professor Karen Fingerman shares how social interactions affect the health and emotional well-being of older adults, including the influences of close ties and weak ties in relationships.
Associate Professor Kylie Kavanagh of Wake Forest School of Medicine addresses the relationships between the microbiota and aging, age-related diseases, and anti-aging interventions.
Kris Geerken and Gilliane Lee from Changing the Narrative raise awareness about ageism in healthcare.
Gloria Luong, an associate professor in Human Development and Family studies, discusses social and emotional development in later adulthood.
Chris Bell, an associate professor in Health and Exercise Science, explores cannabis and its effects on exercise performance.
Stephen Aichele, an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Studies, uses advanced statistics to study cognition and depression in later life.
Josiane Broussard, director of CSU’s Sleep and Metabolism Lab, reviews how circadian disruption impairs metabolic health through measures of insulin sensitivity, fatty acids, lipids, and more.
Nicole Ehrhart, director of the Center, describes the transdisciplinary research effort that developed early detection and mitigation strategies to stop the spread of COVID-19 in skilled nursing facilities.
Watch More from the Healthy Aging Speakers Series:
Great Danes & Grandads: How Man’s Best Friends Hold the Key to Changing Aging. Listen to Nicole Ehrhart, director of the Columbine Health Systems Center for Healthy Aging, offer insight into what we’re learning from canines to promote healthy aging in humans.
Ideas on How to Increase Healthspan. Hear from CHA faculty researcher Tom LaRocca on how his lab uses translational science to understand healthspan and the hallmarks of aging.
Managing Parkinson’s. CSU dance professor, Lisa Morgan, discusses how Parkinson’s patients can use dance therapy to combat stiffness and lack of rhythm and develop their balance, strength, and gait.
Aging Well with Mindfulness. In this talk, Stephanie Rayburn – a marriage and family therapist and doctoral student in Applied Developmental Science at CSU – teaches about the benefits of mindfulness for reducing stress, managing our emotions, tending to our relationships, and more.
Lifespan Modifiers of Brain Aging. Aga Burzynska, an assistant professor in CSU’s Dept. of Human Development and Family Studies and the Molecular, Cellular and Integrative Neurosciences Program, reviews her research on modifiable lifestyle factors — including physical activity, exercise, sedentariness, and occupational exposures — and their effects on cognitive health.
Determinants of Driving Function in Older Adults. Assistant professor Neha Lodha of Health and Exercise Science discusses how disease and aging impair driving ability and ways to promote safe driving in older adults.
Advance Care Planning. Mindy Rickard of the Health District of Northern Larimer County takes us through the variety of care directives that are available, including living wills, power of attorney and “do not resuscitate” documents, and more.
Banking on a New Understanding. In this talk, Marta Castelhano of Cornell University describes what biobanking is, how the Cornell Veterinary Biobank received accreditation, and how biobanking is applied in comparative aging research.
Shifting Perspectives around COVID-19: Effects of Vaccinations: CSU Director Emeritus of Biosafety, Bob Ellis, introduces us to the science behind COVID-19 vaccines: how they’re produced, how they received FDA emergency-use authorization, and how vaccination will aid with herd immunity.
Neural control of movement and the aging brain: How does it change and what are the ramifications? Assistant Professor of Health and Exercise Science, Brett Fling, discusses movement deficits that accompany the natural aging process and how impaired communication between the right and left sides of the brain can result in a lack of coordination.
Interactions between healthspan-extending interventions: Exercise and pharmacotherapeutics. Karyn Hamilton — a professor of Health and Exercise Science and associate director here at the Center — describes findings from three sets of studies that examine whether exercise extends healthspan when combined with therapeutics, including metformin, SGLT2 inhibitors, and Nrf2 activators.
Age Friendliness in Higher Education Today. Investigators Nina Silverstein and Celeste Beaulieu from UMass Boston share their framework for assessing age-inclusivity in higher education and present preliminary findings from CSU’s gap analysis conducted in early spring 2021.
Novel insights into aging, anti-aging interventions, and age-related disease. Devin Wahl, a postdoctoral fellow in Dr. Tom LaRocca’s Healthspan Biology Laboratory, reviews caloric restriction as an anti-aging intervention and describes how transcripts from non-coding repetitive elements in the genome may play a role in age-related disease.
Senior Access Points 2.0: Expanding Resources for Older Adults Across Colorado. Allyson Brothers, an assistant professor of Human Development and Family Studies at CSU, introduces us to Senior Access Points, an organization that helps older adults and family members find aging-related resources in Larimer County. Brothers discusses SAP’s plans for expansion and presents the results of their rural community assessment conducted in 2019.
Targeting Cellular Stress Responses in Neurodegeneration. Julie Moreno, an assistant professor of Environmental and Radiological Health Sciences at CSU, outlines processes in the brain that lead to neurodegeneration and potential therapies that her lab is working on to slow them down.
Understanding Alzheimer’s. Owner of Home Helpers Home Care, Kate Ricke, presents information to assist individuals and caregivers in understanding and preparing for Alzheimer’s disease.
Advancing the Science. Kelly Osthoff, senior director of programs at the Alzheimer’s Association: Colorado Chapter, presents an overview of Alzheimer’s disease science.
