About the Gerontology Center

The Syracuse University Gerontology Center celebrates 35 years of excellence in research, education and policy. The Center is comprised of over 30 faculty affiliates from over a dozen academic departments. Janet Wilmoth, director of the Center, is a Professor of Sociology in the Maxwell School.

Research

Americans are generally living longer and healthier lives, but the quality of life for any single older person is linked to how actively engaged they are in activities such as lifelong learning, employment, volunteering, healthy lifestyle, and family connections. The SU Gerontology Center is comprised of over 30 scholars from a dozen different disciplines who are studying engagement in old age. Engagement includes numerous projects that explore both the barriers to various forms of participation and the outcomes associated with that participation. What factors encourage and discourage engagement across the life course? And what is the impact of various types of engagement for older people and their families?

Education

The Gerontology Center administers a Certificate of Achievement in Gerontology for both undergraduate and graduate students. More than 1,000 students from all over the world have earned Gerontology Certificates at SU. Syracuse University also offers an interdisciplinary undergraduate minor in gerontology. Our undergraduates have gone on to take leadership positions in businesses or agencies that provide services and benefits to the elderly. Our graduates have gone on to achieve MA and PhD degrees and have built rewarding careers at major research universities, teaching colleges, health care facilities, and government agencies. The Gerontology Center also provides information about aging-related courses, research projects, lectures, funding opportunities, and online resources at SU.

Policy

Faculty affiliates of the SU Gerontology Center are visible on the national policy landscape. Our faculty affiliates serve as senior policy advisors for the AARP, Social Security Administration, the National Academy of Social Insurance, and other key policy institutions. They present their scholarly work at government hearings, national and international meetings, foundations, policy centers, and prestigious universities.

Brief History

In 1972, the Administration on Aging, a division of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, established a grant program to fund gerontology programs in colleges and universities. This was the first program of federal funding ever targeted specifically at education and training about aging. That same year, SU School of Social Work established the All-University Gerontology Center with Walter M. Beattie, Dean of Social Work since 1966, as Director. From the first, the Gerontology Center provided a means for students from any college at SU to pursue a concentration in aging. It still does today. The Center also developed a critical mass of faculty members with the expertise to conduct research on aging, and hosted professional training programs for social service providers who worked with elderly persons.

Walter Beattie was succeeded as Director of the Gerontology Center by Neal S. Bellos, Professor of Social Work and a well-known community organizer. A stream of grants from the Administration on Aging funded publication of books and training manuals by James Pirkl, Anna Babic, Darryl Slover, and other well-known faculty affiliates of the Gerontology Center. At some point the Gerontology Center became an autonomous entity attached to the Office of the Vice Chancellor.

In the late 1980s the Center relocated to the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs, under the leadership of Vernon L. Greene, Professor of Public Administration, and its focus shifted toward social science research. Other Directors of the Gerontology Center include Richard V. Burkhauser, former Professor of Economics at SU, Christine L. Himes, Professor of Sociology, and Madonna Harrington Meyer. In 2007, the Center celebrated its 35th year of excellence in research, education, and policy on aging. In July 2008 Janet Wilmoth assumed directorship of the SU Gerontology Center.

Janet Wilmoth, Director

University Gerontology Center
426 Eggers Hall, Syracuse University
Syracuse, New York 13244-1020
315.443.2703 | Fax 315.443.1081
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