December 8th Speakers

Featured Speakers

Juan Mari Aburto was born in Bilbao in 1961. Married and father to two children, he received his law degree from the University of Deusto. For the last 20 years he has held different public offices, mostly related to the promotion of employment and social justice. Among those worth a particular mention are his time at the Social Action Department of the Provincial Council of Bizkaia (2003-2011) and his work at the head of the Employment and Social Affairs Department of the Basque Government (2012-2015). He was elected Mayor of Bilbao in 2015 as the candidate of the Basque Nationalist Party (PNV) and he has been re-elected in 2019. From the moment he took office he made clear that “improving the quality of life for the men and women of Bilbao is the first and last goal” of his job: “The dignity of the people and the common good are matters that must shape all political action”.

Eli Bergthold is 13, and an 8th grader at the Episcopal School of Los Angeles.

Karen is founder of Feature Well Stories, a narrative strategy agency in Oakland, California and a co-author of “The New Map of Life” with the Stanford Center on Longevity. She served as foreign, diplomatic and White House correspondent for Newsweek magazine, and was a producer and reporter for NPR. Karen also worked as a speechwriter and communications strategist, and is co-author with Janet Napolitano of “How Safe are We? Homeland Security Since 9/11.” Karen earned degrees in International Relations and German from U.C. Davis and her M.A. in Political Science from U.C. Berkeley. She was a JSK journalism fellow at Stanford, and is the recipient of numerous journalism awards.

Andy Briggs, MBE, was appointed Group Chief Executive Officer (designate) of Phoenix Group on 1 January 2020. Mr Briggs has over 30 years of insurance industry leadership experience and is a qualified actuary. He was Group Chief Executive of Friends Life, the listed insurer, Managing Director of Scottish Widows, Chief Executive of the Retirement Income division at Prudential and Chairman of the ABI. Most recently he was CEO UK Insurance of Aviva plc until April 2019. He is a Trustee and Chair of the Income Generation Committee of the NSPCC and also serves as the Government’s Business Champion for Older Workers and the Age Grand Challenge.

Chris Farrell is senior economics contributor for American Public Media's Marketplace. An award-winning journalist, he is author of the books Purpose and a Paycheck: Finding Meaning, Money and Happiness in the Second Half of Life and Unretirement: How Baby Boomers Are Changing the Way We Think About Work, Community, and The Good Life.

Dr. Fingerman is a Professor of Human Development & Family Sciences at UT Austin. She studies adult development and aging and is the founding Director of the Texas Aging & Longevity Center and Director of Research for the UT Austin Center on Aging and Population Sciences.  She also oversees the Graduate Portfolio in Aging & Health at UT Austin. She won the Distinguished Mentor in Gerontology Award from the behavioral and social sciences section of the Gerontological Association of America in 2020. She has published over 175 papers and chapters addressing changes in relationships with family members, friends, and acquaintances from young adulthood to old age, with particular attention to emotional qualities of ties and support exchanges. She directed the NIA-funded Family Exchanges Study, a longitudinal study of intergenerational relationships involving middle-aged adults, their romantic partners, grown children and aging parents. Dr. Fingerman is currently overseeing the NIA-funded Daily Experiences and Well-being in Late Life Study looking at over 300 older adults’ social relationships and physical and cognitive functioning in a daily context using a variety of sensory devices and ecologically valid assessments.  

Alison Gopnik is a professor of psychology and affiliate professor of philosophy at the University of California at Berkeley, and a member of the Berkeley AI Research Group. She received her BA from McGill University and her PhD. from Oxford University. She is a leader in the study of cognitive science and of children’s learning and development and was one of the founders of the field of “theory of mind”, an originator of the “theory theory” of children’s development and introduced the idea that probabilistic models and Bayesian inference could be applied to children’s learning. She has held a Center for Advanced Studies in the Behavioral Sciences Fellowship, the Moore Distinguished Scholar Fellowship at the California Institute of Technology, the All Souls College Distinguished Visiting Fellowship at Oxford, the King’s College Distinguished Visiting Fellowship at Cambridge. She has received the APS Lifetime Achievement Cattell Award and the Bradford Washburn Award for Science Communication, She is an elected member of the Society of Experimental Psychologists and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a Cognitive Science Society, American Association for the Advancement of Science, and Guggenheim Fellow. She has been continuously supported by the NSF,. She is president-elect of the Association for Psychological Science

She is the author or coauthor of over 120 journal articles and several books including “Words, thoughts and theories” MIT Press, 1997, and the bestselling and critically acclaimed popular books “The Scientist in the Crib” William Morrow, 1999, “The Philosophical Baby; What children’s minds tell us about love, truth and the meaning of life” 2009, and “The Gardener and the Carpenter” 2016, Farrar, Strauss and Giroux, the latter two won the Cognitive Development Society Best Book Prize in 2009 and 2016. She has also written widely about cognitive science and psychology for The New York Times, The Economist, The Atlantic, The New Yorker, Science, Scientific American, The Times Literary Supplement, The New York Review of Books, New Scientist and Slate, among others. Her TED talk on her work has been viewed more than 4.8 million times. And she has frequently appeared on TV and radio including “The Charlie Rose Show”, “The Colbert Report”, “Radio Lab” and “The Ezra Klein Show”. Since 2013 she has written the Mind and Matter column for the Wall Street Journal. She lives in Berkeley with her husband Alvy Ray Smith, and has three children and four grandchildren.

Dana Griffin is the Co-Founder and CEO of Eldera.ai, the global platform for wisdom sharing and intergenerational connection on a mission to tap into the time and wisdom of 1 billion elders around the world as a new natural resource for the next generation. Eldera is all about bringing back the Era of the Elders. She envisions Eldera as a virtual multigenerational village where kids benefit from social-emotional learning and increased resilience, elders benefit from a sense of purpose and expanded community, and most importantly everyone experiences more joy. 

Dana was raised by her grandparents in Transylvania, Romania and has been guided by elder mentors throughout her life.  A former data and advertising executive turned age-tech entrepreneur, AI for Good advocate and author of multiple trademarks and patents focused on aging and wisdom, Dana serves on multiple AI and Aging related boards. She has been advising, consulting, and speaking internationally about principled uses of AI for innovation, policy, and social impact and was recognized by AdAge as a “40 under 40 changing the advertising industry". 

A Vedic meditator and outspoken fan of interesting people and good food, Dana spends her time cooking, training in Krav Maga and exploring human consciousness.

Cinny Kennard serves as the Executive Director of the Annenberg Foundation, one of the largest family foundations in the United States. 

Prior to joining the Annenberg Foundation in January 2015, Cinny was the Senior Vice President in charge of Programming at the Smithsonian Institution. In that role, she created partnerships with the Smithsonian involving national and international partners for special educational and media initiatives; managed the programming relationships in the joint venture between the Smithsonian and Showtime/CBS known as the Smithsonian Networks; and brought President Obama for a first-ever interview on Smithsonian Channel. Before Smithsonian, Cinny was the first Managing Director of National Public Radio’s West Coast Production Center – NPR West – in Culver City, with executive responsibility for operational and editorial oversight. 

Cinny also played a key role in a variety of Annenberg initiatives for over a decade. As a senior advisor to the Annenberg Retreat at Sunnylands, she organized outreach to Washington, DC stakeholders including the White House, Capitol Hill leadership and the State Department. Those efforts significantly contributed to bringing President Obama and Chinese President Xi Jinping to Sunnylands for the “Sunnylands Summit.” She also facilitated the President’s second meeting at Sunnylands with King Abdullah II of Jordan as well as the visit of US House Speaker John Boehner to Sunnylands. Cinny served as the executive producer of the award-winning film A Place Called Sunnylands and has worked with Foundation Vice President and Co-Director Lauren Bon and the Metabolic Studio on the Strawberry Flag Project for U.S. veterans of war. 

Cinny co-founded the Carole Kneeland Project for Responsible Television Journalism, the Walter Cronkite Awards and the Reliable Resources for Broadcast Political Coverage. She serves on the editorial advisory board of Global Post, an online international newsgathering operation; the DuPont Columbia University Jury; and is a longtime member of the Trusteeship of the International Women’s Forum. Cinny is also a Senior Fellow at the Center on Communication Leadership and Policy at the USC Annenberg School for Communications and Journalism. 

An accomplished author, Cinny helped write Best of Both Worlds: Museums, Libraries, and Archives in a Digital Age by G. Wayne Clough, Secretary of the Smithsonian Institution; co-authored a piece for The Shriver Report: A Woman’s Nation; co-authored “Characteristics of War Coverage by Female Correspondents” in Media and Conflict in the 21st Century; and authored numerous articles for The Huffington Post. 

Earlier in her career, Cinny was an award-winning television news correspondent for CBS News in Los Angeles, Moscow and London. She won the DuPont Columbia University Award for coverage of the 1991 Persian Gulf War. 

Born in 1922 in New Haven, Connecticut, Lear attended Emerson College before flying 52 combat missions over Europe during World War II. Upon his return, Lear began a successful career writing and producing programs like The Colgate Comedy Hour, and The Martha Raye Show - ultimately leading to Lear captivating 120 million viewers per week with his iconic shows of the 1970s and ‘80s.

His production banner, ACT III, has a first look deal with Sony Pictures Television. He served as executive producer to the critically acclaimed reimagining of One Day At A Time, which ran for four seasons and was the first Netflix series to be renewed for network television (PopTV and CBS). Lear executive produces and co-hosts LIVE In Front of a Studio Audience…, alongside Jimmy Kimmel. The series set record ratings for ABC and won the Emmy for Outstanding Variety Special for two consecutive years. In addition to the documentary Rita Moreno: Just A Girl Who Decided To Go For It, which just premiered at Sundance, Lear is an EP on the critically acclaimed feature film I Carry You With Me. He is also executive producing a reimagined and animated Good Times coming to Netflix.

Jake Rothstein is the Founder and CEO of UpsideHoM, whose mission is to enhance the quality of life for older adults everywhere. UpsideHoM is the first and only fully managed living option that uses technology to support simplified access to quality housing, services, experiences, community and safety - at scale.

Jake previously co-founded Papa - a company which pairs older adults and families with “Papa Pals” for companionship and assistance with everyday tasks - based on experience with his own grandfather (who he called Papa). Witnessing the wide-spread nature of loneliness, isolation and unaffordable housing options for older adults, Jake developed the idea for UpsideHoM, which would provide a solution to more completely tackle these challenges at scale.

With a background in technology sales, operations and management, Jake has experience building and running successful, international teams, selling enterprise software into the Global 2000.

Jake holds a BA in Economics from the University of Florida. He is a FAA certificated Private Pilot who enjoys flying, outdoor running and spending time with his incredible wife Sharona and their Goldendoodle Louie.

Prior to being elected with 86 percent support from Miami residents, Mayor Suarez served as Miami Commissioner for District 4 during eight years. Mayor Suarez is married to Gloria Fonts Suarez. They have a son, Andrew Xavier, and a daughter, Gloriana Pilar. They consider themselves honored and blessed to be raising their family in the City of Miami.

Trent Stamp is one of America’s leading experts on healthy aging and the benefits of intergenerational programs. He has recently been published on intergenerational issues in Harvard Business Review, Forbes, The Stanford Social Innovation Review, and The Hill; and has presented at SXSW and the American Society on Aging’s annual conference, among many others. He serves as a board member for Grantmakers in Aging and is on the Milken Institute’s Center for the Future of Aging’s Board of Academic and Policy Advisors. In 2015, Trent oversaw The Eisner Foundation's shift to become the only U.S.-based foundation exclusively focused on intergenerational efforts.

Trent is also a leader in the non-profit world and an expert on charitable and philanthropic best practices. He serves as a member of the Board of Advisors for The Center on Philanthropy & Public Policy at USC, The Board of Directors at Eisner Health Foundation, and the international organization Portsmouth in the Community. He has taught Nonprofit Management and Leadership at the Price School of Public Policy at USC, consults for the Committee on the Arts at The Aspen Institute, and previously chaired the audit committee for the Board of Directors of Southern California Grantmakers.

Trent received his Master’s in Public Policy from Duke University and his B.A. in Law and Society from the University of California, Santa Barbara.