Professor Emerita Connie Corley, PhD, talks about the evolution of the positive aging movement and how embracing change, conscious awareness, and perspective are keys to aging well.

About Connie

Connie Corley, MSW, MA, PhD has a long history in the fields of gerontology/geriatrics as a graduate of University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. She co-created the doctoral concentration in Creative Longevity and Wisdom in the School of Leadership Studies at Fielding Graduate University and is Professor Emerita at California State University, Los Angeles as well as Fielding.

A Fellow of the Gerontological Society of America and Academy of Gerontology in Higher Education, she has engaged in multiple programs as a mentor and leader in curriculum development and co-founded and directed a lifelong learning program in Los Angeles for over 10 years. Recent work involves creativity in later life (emerging from a national study of Holocaust survivors) and intergenerational/intercultural mutual mentoring. Her website for coaching and podcast archives is https://conniecorleyphd.org/.

• Key Takeaways
  The field of positive aging emerged from positive psychology looking at is ways in which humans can live life more fully.
• Conscious aging means doing an internal audit, examining experiences, and gaining greater awareness. Becoming aware means living in the moment, mindfully.
• “Gerotranscendence” is spending time in reflection and having perspective to step back and look at the larger dimensions of life. It is an act of consciousness to step aside from worrying and ruminating and become aware of those negative thoughts.
• Do more of nothing. It is a gift of growing older to have fewer professional commitments.
• The four different dimensions the 4A Plus Model of positive aging are Wellness, Affiliation, Attitude and Awareness.

Lynn Casteel Harper explores the myths and metaphors surrounding dementia and aging in her debut book. Discover why this work has been chosen as a New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice.

About Lynn

Lynn Casteel Harper is an essayist, minister, and chaplain. Her debut book, On Vanishing: Mortality, Dementia, and What It Means to Disappear (Catapult, 2020), was named a New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice and a Chautauqua Literary and Scientific Circle selection for 2021. On Vanishing appeared on the Gold Foundation’s 2021 Reading List for Compassionate Clinicians.

Lynn’s essays and interviews have appeared in Kenyon Review Online, Salon, The Paris Review, North American Review, The Christian Science Monitor, NPR’s Think, The Sun Magazine, and elsewhere. She is a Barbara Deming Memorial Fund grant recipient and the winner of the 2017 Orison Anthology Award in Nonfiction.

A graduate of Wake Forest University Divinity School and Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital’s chaplain residency program, Lynn has served as the Minister of Older Adults at The Riverside Church in the City of New York and as a nursing home chaplain. Lynn lives and writes in Bridgeport, Connecticut, where she is the pastor of Olivet Congregational Church UCC.

Key Takeaways

• On Vanishing: Mortality, Dementia, and What It Means to Disappear explores why those of us who don't have dementia are vanishing from those who do, and why dementia brings up so much fear and dread.
• The larger culture and educational system assume people living with dementia are not only diminished in capacity, but in their essential selves. Their humanity fades away.
• We internalize the idea that to be loved, we need to approach perfection. Releasing that allows for more fun and creativity.

Vida Roozen is the Chief Operating Officer at The Smarter Service, a technology concierge provider for older adults and senior living communities. Learn why this startup was recognized by Wired magazine as one of the best tech services for older adults.

About Vida

Vida Roozen has a 23-year career in consumer technology and the home appliance sector. Before joining The Smarter Service, she held Senior Vice President positions at BDS Solutions, a sales and marketing solutions provider, and at Creative Channel Services, a strategic retail marketing company. Notably, she also led Omnicom’s Women’s Leadership chapter for California. ‘

Vida's decision to join The Smarter Service was deeply personal, fueled by experiences supporting aging parents with technology challenges. In her role, she saw a clear market gap and seized the opportunity not only to assist individuals but also to revolutionize the understanding of older adults within the tech and healthcare industries.

Key Takeaways

• People use technology on their own terms. It is highly personalized. The Smarter Service helps clients build confidence using their devices, fixes things when they're not working and suggests tools that will help them realize their goals.
• Older adults often use smartphones, tablets, smart TVs, and wearables to stay connected to their families in other locations. Shared calendars help generations communicate real time.
• Not keeping up with software updates and using outdated devices can be challenging for older adults. Smartphones are often gifted by family members and platforms may no longer be supported.
• Technologies that hold the most promise to improve the lives of older adults include advancements in telemedicine and diagnostic tools like wearables and smart home devices so people can monitor their health and recognize problems before they become bigger problems.
• Start discussions with older adults about their vision for the future. Encourage them to think about where and how they want to live as they age, what kind of support they might need, and what hobbies or activities they hope to pursue. This process is helpful for identifying the role technology can play in helping older adults realize their goals.

Abby Levy is Managing Partner and Founder at Primetime Partners, a venture capital firm investing in early-stage businesses that improve quality of life for older adults. Abby gets real about the challenges of heading up a venture-backed business and the exciting technologies that will reduce the cost of healthcare and raise the bar in preventive medicine, wellness, and financial longevity.

About Abby

Abby Miller Levy has spent her career helping businesses and consumer brands grow as an operator, entrepreneur, and advisor, most notably in the wellness sector. Prior to Primetime Partners, she was Senior Vice President of Strategy & Growth at SoulCycle, where she oversaw business development and revenue growth outside the consumer studio business, with an emphasis on building new digital products.

Abby teamed with Arianna Huffington to launch Thrive Global, a behavior change technology company focused on employee productivity and wellness. Abby served as President of Thrive Global and remains on the Thrive Board. Abby began her career at McKinsey & Company then led product development at OXO International. She is a graduate of Princeton University and Harvard Business School.

Key Takeaways

• Aging is a global megatrend. By 2030 in the US, there will be more Americans over the age of 65 than under 18, which has major repercussions on every industry including health care, financial services, housing, workplace, and travel.

• Technologies and services that reduce the cost of healthcare are essential. Medicare is a “runaway train” growing at 8% a year, with spend approaching a trillion dollars a year. It is predicted that 50% of Americans will run out of money as they age.

• Preventative care is driven by “quantified selves” in terms of the healthcare data and diagnostics we collect on ourselves. With an Oura ring or Apple watch, it is easy to track key health indicators like blood biomarkers and gut health.
• Persistent internalized ageism prevents us from wanting to think about getting older. Not wanting to plan for getting older and engage in content around aging has been a very big inhibitor for businesses, especially if the business model is direct to consumer.

• It is not culturally normal to have conversations around aging. We have been trained to think that aging is bad and don’t talk about the wisdom, experience, gravitas, and expertise that comes with age.
• AI will help people make better decisions—data will be easier to access and more manageable and actionable. AI-driven personalized nudges will help people make better decisions and healthier choices.

Maddie Dychtwald, co-founder of Age Wave, is a pioneer in the longevity revolution and author of four books, including her newest Ageless Aging, A Woman's Guide to Increasing Health Span, Brainspan, and Lifespan. Maggie shares her key ingredients to living better longer and her “holistic recipe” for aging well based on interviews with 100 different physicians, researchers and academicians and insights from the Age Wave think tank.

About Maddy

Recognized by Forbes as one of the top fifty female futurists globally, for nearly 40 years, Maddy Dychtwald has been deeply involved in exploring all aspects of the age wave and how it’s fundamentally transforming our lives and the world at-large. This has led her to become a national bestselling author, acclaimed public speaker, and thought leader on longevity and aging, health, wellness, and the new retirement.

Maddy co-founded Age Wave, the world’s leader in understanding and addressing the far-reaching impacts of longevity and our aging population. The Age Wave team has worked with more than half of the Fortune 500 in industries ranging from healthcare and medical technology to financial services and consumer products.

Key Takeaways

• Most research and clinical health trials are done on men. In 2016, the FDA requested pharmaceutical companies include women in clinical trials.
• Women live, on average, six years longer than men, but often not in good health. On average, women spend the last 12 to 14 years in a cascade of poor health.
• Genetics are not destiny—90% of our health and well-being is within our control, having to do with our lifestyle and environment.
• Women are twice as likely as men to get Alzheimer's disease. Exercise positively impacts your brain health—it can increase the size of your hippocampus, which is where we store memories,
• Not having your financial house in order increases cortisol levels. High levels of cortisol levels negatively impact your heart and increase the chances of getting a stroke.
• Your attitude towards aging has an impact on how long you live and how well you live. If you think more positively about your own aging, you generally have significantly more gray matter in your brain compared to those who don't. Long term studies show positive perceptions of aging add 7 ½ years to your life.

Darin Buxbaum, MBA, is the co-founder and CEO of Wider Circle, a technology-enabled health services company that empowers members of the same community to live happier, healthier lives. He shares the outcomes of Wider Circle's peer support groups and provides insights for aging individuals and their families. About Darin

Darin Buxbaum's extensive healthcare experience includes proven success both as an entrepreneur and as a leader in the enterprise space. He's co-founded digital health, insurance tech, healthcare services and medical device companies and led large initiatives at a Fortune 500 company.

Currently, he's the co-founder and CEO of Wider Circle, a technology-enabled health services company. Previously he was co-founder and VP of Product at Oration, an insurance tech company enabling self insured employers and their employees to dramatically reduce their prescription drug spend. In the medtech space, he founded HourGlass Technologies, a healthcare technology start-up, and served as president and CEO for five-plus years. There, he drove the development of new medical-device technology from concept to clinical trial, earning recognition as a top 40 Innovators Under 40 in the medtech industry from Medical Device and Diagnostic Industry. Darin’s enterprise experience includes leading the largest digital health initiative at Medtronic where he was awarded the Star of Excellence, the company’s highest honor.

Darin graduated Summa Cum Laude from Duke University and earned an MBA from Stanford University, graduating as an Arjay Miller Scholar. Darin remains active with Stanford as a contributor and mentor to the BioDesign course and textbook.

Key Takeaways

• Personal connections are key to health and happiness. An African proverb says: if you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.
• Wider Circle’s peer support groups for vulnerable populations are subsidized by health plans and physician networks because the individuals who would benefit most from neighborhood-based health initiatives are often the least able to afford them.
• The outcomes from Wider Circle’s peer support groups include reducing loneliness by over 65% against the match control population and increasing the number of healthy days by 43%. Health plans see a cost reduction of $100 per month and reduced hospitalizations by 15%.

CEO of the media platform, The Ageless Traveler, Adriane Berg illustrates the vast opportunities that evolve in the nexus of travel and longevity.

About Adriane

Through her groundbreaking media platform, The Ageless Traveler, Adriane empowers 60+ travelers to embark on transformative journeys filled with connection, discovery, and purpose. Adriane, age 75, has visited 121 countries and has been named a New York Times Age-Boom Fellow.

Adriane is also the host/creator of the Mature Market award-winning podcast Generation Bold: The Fountain of Truth About Aging and the United Nations podcast On the Ground. Her recent publications include The Caregiver's Travel Guide and Luxury Travel for Less; both are offered free to all.

Adriane’s advocacy includes being a representative to the United Nations from the International Federation on Ageing, a Board Member of the UN's Global NGO Executive Committee, and a Member of the NGO Committee on Ageing, at the forefront of advocating for a treaty on the human rights of older people, a crucial endeavor in today's aging population.

Key Takeaways

• As you age, travel supports your health, gives you initiative, and opens the door to new friendships, all of which are critical to wholistic wellness and longevity.
• Travel encourages you to stay current with technology, which can curb isolation through new modes of communication, such as WhatsApp and FaceTime.
• Almost all fear of solo travel comes from someone else. People will project their own fears onto you if you embark on a solo journey. Don’t internalize other people’s fears.
• Solo travel” is never truly “solo. The travel community is vast, and the minute you’re out there – you’re going to make a friend.

Additional Links

World Tourism Network

Certified Professional Coach Ivy Woolf Turks talks about tools for fostering personal growth and emotional literacy, and social responsibility, and her vision for living in a healthier and more just world.

About Ivy

Ivy Woolf Turk, CPC, is a resilience coach and speaker with a powerful story of overcoming adversity. A former co-founder of a multi-million-dollar real estate company, she faced life’s toughest challenges, including cancer, divorce, single parenthood and a five-year prison sentence. Through these experiences, she discovered that true liberation comes from within and even the most well lived lives can contain moments when obstacles must become great curricula for growth.

Now, Ivy helps others unlock their potential and navigate life's challenges with strength, grace and over a decade of coaching experience. A recognized advocate and founder of Resiliency Coaching, Project Liberation and A Liberated Life, Ivy’s work has impacted thousands who feel stuck or “imprisoned” in one way or another.

Key Takeaways

• Project Liberation is a personal development platform fostering personal growth and emotional literacy and social responsibility. The program has helped 600 women in the last eight years “become heroines of their own story,” with a zero-recidivism rate.
• A Liberated Life provides a safe space to learn life skills like meditation, breath work, and journaling to help the women understand what they value and what is most important.
• Women often take care of everyone else at their own expense. They forget how to ask for help.