News Release

April 14, 2011

Highlights of the 2011 Aging Exchange and Announcement of Poster Award Winners

The 7th Annual Aging Exchange, sponsored by the UNC Institute on Aging to celebrate aging research and promote networking among researchers on the UNC Chapel Hill campus, was held Thursday, April 7th at the Friday Center, Chapel Hill.

UNC Chapel Hill graduate students and faculty presented 27 posters which were judged in four categories. Over 80 guests attended the event, which also included presentation of the Gordon H. DeFriese Career Development in Aging Research Awards, and a keynote address on American Indian aging policy and research by Margaret Moss, PhD, JD, RN, FAAN and Associate Professor and Director of the Nursing Management, Policy and Leadership Specialty, Yale University School of Nursing.

In her keynote address, Dr. Moss presented a thought-provoking talk on the complexities of conducting health studies within Native American tribal populations. A dearth of research and results in this area is due in part to gaps in cultural competencies needed for studying American Indians, and sample numbers too small for statistical significance.

The Gordon H. DeFriese Career Development in Aging Research Awards were presented to one faculty member and two doctoral student co-winners. Anna Song Beeber, PhD, RN, Assistant Professor at the UNC Chapel Hill School of Nursing, and Research Fellow at the Cecil G. Sheps Center for Health Services Research, received the faculty award. Doctoral student co-winners were Ashley Leak, BSN, MSN, who will graduate with her PhD in Nursing in May, 2011, and Tiffany Washington, BA, MSW, persuing her PhD in social work at Chapel Hill where she is a predoctoral fellow in the Carolina Program in Health and Aging Research (CPHAR).

Through the generous support of 9 co-sponsors, the IOA awarded first prizes of $250 and second prizes of $200 to University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. A single prize of $250 was awarded for the best poster in the interdisciplinary research category (sponsored by the Interdisciplinary Center for Aging Research: Uniting Scientists or ICARUS) and the poster that best represents campus-community collaboration and/or care transitions (sponsored by Carol Woods Retirement Center). The co-sponsors were Carol Woods Retirement Community, Carolina Meadows, the UNC College of Arts and Sciences, UNC's Interdisciplinary Center for Aging Research: Uniting Scientists (ICARUS), and the UNC Schools of Dentistry, Information and Library Science, Medicine, Nursing and Public Health.

The IOA extends its thanks to our poster judges for the event: Jack Benjamin, MD, of the Carol Woods Retirement Community Board of Directors, Barbara Carlson, PhD, RN, of the UNC School of Nursing, Jennifer Craft Morgan, PhD, UNC Institute on Aging Scientist, and Zeke Zamora, MD, of the UNC School of Medicine.

POSTER WINNERS, GRADUATE STUDENTS
1st Prize , Aaron Katz, PharmD, Eshelman School of Pharmacy, Division of Pharmaceutical Outcomes and Policy and Institute on Aging (CPHAR). “ Guideline Use of Pharmacotherapy for Hypertension and Hyperlipidemia Among Adults with Diabetes: NHANES 2005-2008 .”
2nd Prize , Sarah Bortvedt, BS; Laurianne Van Landeghem, PhD; M. Agostina Santoro, BS; Shengli Ding, MD, PhD; Jim Simmons, PhD; P. Kay Lund, PhD., Dept. of Cell & Molecular Physiology. “ Old Animals Show Expansion and Hyperproliferation of Intestinal Epithelial Stem Cells (IESC), but Attenuated IESC/Progenitor Regeneration After Irradiation Damage.”

POSTER WINNERS, POSTDOCTORAL FELLOWS
1st Prize, Dawn C. Carr, PhD, UNC Institute on Aging (CPHAR); Lydia K. Manning, MGS, and J. Scott Brown, PhD, Scripps Gerontology Center and Department of Sociology & Gerontology, Miami University. “Productivity in Later Life: The Role of Life Stage.”
2nd Prize, Ginny Crisp, PharmD, UNC Hospitals and Clinics; Mary R. McClurg, PharmD, and Jena Ivey Burkhart, PharmD, BCPS, CPP, Eshelman School of Pharmacy; Denise Esserman, PhD, School of Medicine; Morris Weinberger, PhD, MD, Gillings School of Global Public Health . “Assessing Medication-Related Problems in Older Adults Using the iMap Tool.”

ICARUS AWARD
This award recognizes the best interdisciplinary poster.
Tandrea S. Hilliard, MPH, Department of Health Policy & Management and UNC Institute on Aging; Jeffrey Bethel, PhD, Department of Public Health, East Carolina University; Mary J. Barchman, MD, Department of Internal Medicine, East Carolina University “Building Bridges to Effective Chronic Kidney Disease Management: A Mixed-Methods Needs Assessment of Primary Care Physicians and Older Minority Nephrology Patients in Eastern North Carolina.” .

CAROL WOODS RETIREMENT COMMUNITY AWARD
This award recognizes the poster that best reflects campus-community collaboration and/or care transitions.
Ginny Crisp, PharmD, UNC Hospitals and Clinics; Mary R. McClurg, PharmD, and Jena Ivey Burkhart, PharmD, BCPS, CPP, Eshelman School of Pharmacy; Denise Esserman, PhD, School of Medicine; Morris Weinberger, PhD, MD, Gillings School of Global Public Health . “Assessing Medication-Related Problems in Older Adults Using the iMap Tool.”

About the Aging Exchange:
The Aging Exchange is an annual event to promote research in aging-related fields on the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill campus. The event is sponsored by the UNC Institute on Aging in collaboration with the Carol Woods Retirement Community; Carolina Meadows; College of Arts and Sciences; ICARUS; and the Schools of Dentistry, Information and Library Science, Medicine, Nursing, and Public Health.