 | |
| Type | Private |
|---|---|
| Established | 1975 [1] |
Parent institution | University of Southern California |
| Dean | Pinchas Cohen, MD |
Academic staff | 53 [1] |
| Undergraduates | 58 [1] |
| Postgraduates | 160 [1] |
| 25 [1] | |
| Location | , , |
| Website | gero |
The USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology is one of the seventeen academic divisions of the University of Southern California in Los Angeles, focusing on undergraduate and graduate programs in gerontology.
Founded in 1975, the Leonard Davis School is the oldest and largest professional School of Gerontology. The school offered the world’s first Ph.D. in Gerontology, the first joint master’s degree in Gerontology and Business Administration, and the first undergraduate Health Science Track in Gerontology. [2] [3]
Its research and services component is the USC Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center. Research in molecular biology, neuroscience, demography, psychology, sociology and public policy is conducted at the Andrus Gerontology Center, founded in 1964.[ citation needed ]
The school offered the world's first Ph.D. in Gerontology, [4] the first joint master's degree in Gerontology and Business Administration, and the first undergraduate Health Science Track in Gerontology. The Leonard Davis School also offered the first internet-based educational program to be approved by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges. [5]
The school offers two undergraduate degrees. The Bachelor of Science in Human Development and Aging has a health science track designed for students who wish to pursue medicine or other health-related fields and a social science track that focuses on human development via the behavioral sciences, designed for students pursuing law, policy, psychology, sociology, and health administration. The Bachelor of Science in Lifespan Health is for students pursuing medicine and health-related fields, and its material focuses on disease prevention, detection, and treatment. [6]
Its graduate programs include five master's degrees and two doctorates. The Master of Science in Gerontology is targeted towards students aiming for professional leadership positions, while the Master of Arts in Gerontology is formal training in gerontology for current professionals. The Master of Long-Term Care Administration focuses on long-term care.
The Master of Aging Services Management provides leadership training on management related specifically to aging services businesses such as residential, assisted living, retirement, home, or hospice care, while also including information on demography, health and culture. The Master of Science in Nutrition, Healthspan, and Longevity is about nutrition and dietetics, as applicable to health, and aging care facilities, food service programs, personal wellness, private practice, scientific research on health and longevity, or in policy and advocacy. Graduates may take the Commission of Dietetics Registration's national registration examination once graduated. Upon passing, graduates may receive the Registered Dietitian Nutritionist (RDN) credential. [7]
Students working towards a Doctorate in Gerontology study the field of aging, especially research toward improving the quality of life throughout the entire lifespan.
Students working towards a Doctorate in Biology of Aging study molecular, cellular, and regenerative medicine as well as the integrative biology of aging. The program, the first of its kind in the United States, is coordinated by both the school and the Buck Institute for Research on Aging; students can choose a mentor and Ph.D. faculty committee from either. Students take core courses on the molecular and cellular biology of aging and age-related diseases, and then select a track among neuroscience, molecular, and cellular biology, stem cell and regenerative sciences, and biomedical sciences. [8]
The Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center is the research and services component of the USC Leonard Davis School. Established in 1964, it is the nation's first multidisciplinary research center devoted to aging. Its primary goal is to provide scientific information about the process of human development as it applies to individuals, families, organizations, and societies. Students at all levels are encouraged to take part in a variety of programs involving service, research, and other scholarly pursuits at the USC Andrus Center.
Following are examples of research programs and services at the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center:
The USC Longevity Institute unites multidisciplinary aging research approaches in order to maximize the healthy life span.
The USC Memory and Aging Center (MAC) focuses on reducing the cognitive and behavioral impact of Alzheimer's disease and cerebrovascular dementia among ethnically diverse populations.
The USC/UCLA Center on Biodemography & Population Health (CBPH) a multi-site center specializing in the demography of aging sponsored by the National Institute on Aging.
The Fall Prevention Center of Excellence (FPCE) seeks to better understand and identify causes of falls among older persons and develop effective interventions at individual, program, and system-wide levels.
The Los Angeles Caregiver Resource Center (LACRC) is part of a statewide system of regional resource centers serving families and caregivers of adults with brain impairment.
The Roybal Institute for Applied Gerontology is a research and education center devoted to improving the health and health care of older persons and their families, with particular emphasis on low-income and multiethnic communities.
SUNY Downstate Medical Center is a public medical school and hospital in Brooklyn, New York. It is the southernmost member of the State University of New York (SUNY) system and the only academic medical center for health education, research, and patient care serving Brooklyn's 2.5 million residents. As of Fall 2018, it had a total student body of 1,846 and approximately 8,000 faculty and staff.
Vanderbilt University School of Nursing (VUSN) is a graduate school of Vanderbilt University, located in Nashville, Tennessee. VUSN is closely connected with its parent university and the separate nonprofit Vanderbilt University Medical Center. The School of Nursing is ranked in the top 10 in the U.S. News & World Report rankings. Additionally, its Masters of Science program is ranked 8th, and its Doctorate of Nursing practice program 6th in the report's 2022 graduate school rankings.
James E. Birren was one of the founders of the organized field of gerontology. He was a past president of The Gerontological Society of America, and author of over 250 publications.
Eileen M. Crimmins is the AARP Chair in Gerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology of the University of Southern California. Her work focuses on the connections between socioeconomic factors and life expectancy and other health outcomes.
The UCLA School of Nursing is a nursing school affiliated with UCLA, and is located in the Westwood neighborhood of Los Angeles, California. The school is housed in the Doris and Louis Factor Health Sciences Building, known as the Factor Building, on the south end of UCLA's 400-plus-acre campus, adjacent to the Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center.
Financial gerontology is a multidisciplinary field of study encompassing both academic and professional education, that integrates research on aging and human development with the concerns of finance and business. Following from its roots in social gerontology, Financial gerontology is not simply the study of old people but emphasizes the multiple processes of aging. In particular, research and teaching in financial gerontology draws upon four kinds of aging or "'four lenses" through which aging and finance can be viewed: population aging, individual aging, family aging, and generational aging. While it is problematic that "demography is destiny," demographic concepts, issues, and data play a substantial role in understanding the dynamics of financial gerontology. For example, through the lens of population aging, demography identifies the number of persons of different ages in cities and countries—and at multiple points in time. Through the lens of individual aging, demography also notes changes in the length of time—number of years lived in older age, typically measured by increases in life expectancy. From in its founding years in the beginning of the 21st century, one primary interest of Financial Gerontology has been on baby boomers and their relationships with their parents. The impact of these two kinds of aging on finance are reasonably apparent. The large and increasing number of older persons [population aging] in a society, no matter how "old age" is defined, and the longer each of these persons lives [individual aging], the greater the impact on a society's pattern of retirement, public and private pension systems, health, health care, and the personal and societal financing of health care. The focus on boomers illustrates also the other two lenses or "kinds" of aging. How boomers deal with the social, emotional, and financial aspects of their parents' aging is a central aspect of family aging. And how boomers may differ from their parents born and raised twenty to forty years earlier, and differ from their Generation X and Millennial children and grandchildren, are substantial aspects of generational aging.
The Herbert Wertheim School of Optometry & Vision Science at the University of California, Berkeley,, is an optometry school at the University of California, Berkeley. It offers a graduate-level, four-year professional program leading to the Doctor of Optometry degree (OD), and a one-year, ACOE-accredited residency program in clinical optometry specialties. It is also the home department for the multidisciplinary Vision Science Group at the University of California, Berkeley, whose graduate students earn either MS or PhD degrees. Its namesake is American optometrist Herbert Wertheim, due to his $50 million pledge to the school in 2021 through the Dr. Herbert and Nicole Wertheim Family Foundation.
Caleb Ellicott Finch is an American academic who is a professor at the USC Davis School of Gerontology. Finch's research focuses on aging in humans, with a specialization in cell biology and Alzheimer's disease.
Kelvin J. A. Davies is the James E. Birren Chair of Gerontology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology with a joint appointment in Dana and David Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences in biology. He is involved in researching free radical biology, oxidative stress, and aging; and was an early member of the study of protein oxidation, proteolysis, and altered gene expression during stress-adaptation; he also found the role of free radicals in mitochondrial adaptation to exercise, and demonstrated the role of diminished oxidative stress-adaptive gene expression in aging.
Christian Pike is a professor at the Leonard Davis School of Gerontology and a member of the USC Neuroscience Program. His ongoing work focuses on Alzheimer's disease and other age-related neurodegenerative disorders. His laboratory studies the role of neuronal apoptosis in neural diseases. Recently, his research found new use for synthetic estrogens in lessening the effects of Hormone Replacement Therapy for Alzheimer's patients.
Edward L. Schneider is a Professor of Gerontology at the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, Professor of Medicine at the Keck School of Medicine of USC, with a joint appointment in biological sciences and molecular biology at the Dornsife College of Letters, Arts and Sciences.
The BYU College of Life Sciences was originally named the College of Biology and Agriculture. It was formed in 1954 from the division of the College of Applied Science into this college and the College of Family Living, which was a partial predecessor of the College of Family, Home and Social Sciences. While the Agronomy; Horticulture; Animal Husbandry; Industrial Arts and Drawing; and Bacteriology programs all came from the College of Applied Science the Botany; and Zoology and Entomology programs came from the College of Arts and Sciences. Thomas L. Martin was the first dean of the College of Biology and Agriculture. In 1954 the Agricultural Economics Department was moved from the College of Commerce to the College of Biology and Agriculture.
Valter D. Longo is an Italian-American biogerontologist and cell biologist known for his studies on the role of fasting and nutrient response genes on cellular protection aging and diseases and for proposing that longevity is regulated by similar genes and mechanisms in many eukaryotes. He is currently a professor at the USC Davis School of Gerontology with a joint appointment in the department of Biological Sciences as well as serving as the director of the USC Longevity Institute.
Ruth Leah Weg was an American academic who worked as a professor at the USC Davis School of Gerontology.
Elizabeth Zelinski is an American college professor known for her expertise in gerontechnology, neuroscience, and cognition. She is the Rita and Edward Polusky Chair in Education and Aging Professor of Gerontology and Psychology at the USC Davis School of Gerontology and she heads the Center for Digital Aging. Zelinski studies longitudinal changes in objective cognition and self-reported memory in healthy older adults, interventions to improve their cognition and health effects on cognition in aging.
Pinchas Cohen is the dean of the USC Leonard Davis School of Gerontology, holds the William and Sylvia Kugel Dean's Chair in Gerontology and serves as the executive director of the Ethel Percy Andrus Gerontology Center.
Created in 1985, the University of Maryland Graduate School, Baltimore (UMGSB) represents the combined graduate and research programs at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County and the University of Maryland, Baltimore (UMB), the university system's doctoral research campuses in the Baltimore area.
The USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences is the pharmacy school of the University of Southern California, originally established in 1905 as USC College of Pharmacy. On November 17, 2022, the University of Southern California released an announcement stating that the school will be renamed the USC Alfred E. Mann School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences and will receive a $50 million endowment for student scholarships, faculty recruitment and integrating a university-wide research infrastructure related to biomedical innovation across USC’s University Park and Health Sciences campuses. The School is led by Dean Vassilios Papadopoulos.
Victor A. RegnierFAIA is an American architect, professor, and researcher. His research and publications have explored the creation and evaluation of residential settings for the physically and cognitively frail with special attention to northern European precedents.
