Ithaca College

W. Andrew Achenbaum, former chairman of the board of the National Council on Aging and professor of history and social work at the University of Houston, will speak on “Older Americans, Vital Communities” at Ithaca College on Thursday, November 10, 7:00 p.m. in Emerson Suites, Phillips Hall. The event is free and open to the public.

As one of the nation’s leading historians on aging, Achenbaum has been a delegate to two White House Conferences on Aging and has worked on several state and municipal task forces. In addition to 100 book chapters, articles, and essays in a wide variety of scholarly venues, Achenbaum has written five books, including Older Americans, Vital Communities and Crossing Frontiers: Gerontology Emerges as a Science. His research reveals a wide gap between how most Americans assess the well-being of the elderly and how older Americans view their own status. Achenbaum challenges Americans of all ages to close that divide by viewing the last phase of life as a period of productivity and civic engagement, not a period of decline.

A member of the board of directors of the National Council on Aging since 1992, Achenbaum served as that body’s chairman from 1999 to 2001. Formerly a history professor at the University of Michigan, he was named Michigan Gerontological Educator of the Year in 1992. His book Old Age in a New Land: The American Experience since 1790 received Choice magazine’s 1979 Outstanding Academic Book award.

Achenbaum holds a doctorate in history from the University of Michigan, a master’s degree in American civilization from the University of Pennsylvania, and a bachelor’s degree in American studies from Amherst College.

For more information contact Terry Beckley at the Gerontology Institute at (607) 274-1967.