December 9th: Featured Speakers

Dr. Jean Accius is a senior executive and nationally recognized thought leader on aging, longevity, health and long-term care policy. He is a tri-sector leader with deep knowledge and a wealth of experience having served in senior level positions across private, public and nonprofit sectors. Dr. Accius is the Senior Vice President of Thought Leadership and International Affairs. In this role, he provides strategic direction, leadership and technical expertise championing new ideas, framing thought- provoking perspectives and driving bold solutions to change systems and improve the lives of all as they age both domestically and internationally.

Dr. Accius has been quoted by or appeared in numerous media outlets, including TIME Magazine, USA Today, Reuters, Politico, Next Avenue, ESPN’s Undefeated, Congressional Quarterly’s online arm and the Huffington Post. The National Academy of Social Insurance recognized him as one of the new generation of social insurance leaders in the country. In 2018, Dr. Accius was recognized as a Gerontological Society of America Fellow, one of Black Enterprise magazine’s 2018 Modern Man of Distinction and a recipient of the Prince George’s County Social Innovation Fund 40 under 40 Award. In 2019, the National Academy of Television Arts & Sciences awarded him with the prominent “Sharecare Award” for his groundbreaking work on male family caregivers. The Maryland Daily Record recognized him as a 2019 Influential Marylander for sparking innovation and progress, shaping and enriching his community and knowing how to get results that better the state and serve the needs of residents of all ages.

Dr. Jean Accius has held a variety of board and advisory positions including Justice in Aging, the American Society on Aging, Leadership Maryland, the Florida State University Alumni Association, the South Florida Institute on Aging Policy Council and the Editorial Advisory Committee for Generations, the journal for the American Society on Aging.

He is an Executive Leadership Council Fellow and holds a bachelor’s degree in hospitality administration and a master’s degree in aging studies from the Claude Pepper Institute at Florida State University, and a Ph.D. in public administration from American University. Dr. Accius is also a member of the Vanguard group at Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business Corporate Innovation program.

Börsch-Supan holds a diploma in mathematics from Bonn, Germany, and a Ph.D. in economics from M.I.T. He was Assistant Professor of Public Policy at Harvard University 1984-1989, then Professor for Macroeconomics and Public Policy at Mannheim University.Since 2011, he directs the Munich Center for the Economic of Aging (MEA) at the Max Planck Institute for Social Law and Social Policy in Munich and holds a professorship at the Technical University of Munich.

He leads the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (SHARE), is member of the German National Academy of Sciences Leopoldina, the Berlin-Brandenburg and the Austrian Academy of Sciences; and Research Associate at the National Bureau of Economic Research in Cambridge, Mass. His policy consulting includes: Council of Advisors to the German Economics Ministry (chair 2004-08), two German Pension Reform Commissions, ministries in Germany, other governments in EU, EU Commission, OECD, and World Bank.

Laura L. Carstensen is Professor of Psychology and the Fairleigh S. Dickinson Jr. Professor in Public Policy at Stanford University where she serves as founding director of the Stanford Center on Longevity. Her research has been supported continuously by the National Institute on Aging for more than 25 years and she is currently supported through a prestigious MERIT Award. In 2011, she authored the book, A Long Bright Future: Happiness, Health, and Financial Security in an Age of Increased Longevity. Dr. Carstensen has served on the National Advisory Council on Aging and the MacArthur Foundation’s Research Network on an Aging Society. In 2016 she was inducted into the National Academy of Medicine. She has won numerous awards, including the Kleemeier Award from the Gerontological Society of America, a Guggenheim fellowship, and the Master Mentor Award from the American Psychological Association. She received a BS from the University of Rochester and PhD in clinical psychology from West Virginia University.

U.S. Senator Bob Casey fights every day for Pennsylvania families. He is a strong advocate for policies that improve the health care and early learning of children and policies that will raise wages for the middle class. Senator Casey serves on four committees including the Senate Finance Committee and Senate HELP Committee. He is also the highest ranking Democrat on the Special Committee on Aging, where his agenda is focused on policies that support seniors and individuals with disabilities. Senator Casey and his wife Terese have four daughters and live in Scranton.

Steve Cole is a genomics researcher at the David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA.  His research utilizes molecular genetics and computational bioinformatics to analyze the pathways by which social and environmental factors influence the activity of the human genome, as well as viral and tumor genomes.  He pioneered the field of human social genomics.  Dr. Cole is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Academy of Behavioral Medicine Research.  He is also a member of the Jonsson Comprehensive Cancer Center, the Norman Cousins Center, the UCLA AIDS Institute, and the UCLA Molecular Biology Institute.  Cole collaborates with >400 other scientists worldwide through his role as Director of the UCLA Social Genomics Core Laboratory.

Dr. Cullen is an occupational and environmental health physician, internist and chronic disease epidemiologist. His early career at Yale was devoted to clinical research to better characterize diseases caused by environmental exposures, both at work and in the ambient environment, gaining attention for work on lead, asbestos, beryllium, solvents and others. During long-term follow-up of a large industrial cohort, he explored the potential for the use of linked administrative databases for human health research

Over the past decade, after moving to Stanford, he has been a leader in the applications of new “big data” methods to complex social and environmental health interactions through observational studies that exploit the availability of increasing biologic, clinical and administrative data across the life-course. Founder of the Stanford Center for Population Health Sciences, he has focused on the problem of making high-risk data linkable and shareable within the broad social science and health science research communities. He continues this work as Chair of Scientific Steering Committee of the COVID-19 Research Database, a consortium of data vendors dedicated to advancing knowledge of the pandemic. Winner of many awards and prizes, he was elected to National Academy of Medicine in 1997.

Victor J. Dzau is the President of the US National Academy of Medicine (NAM), formerly the Institute of Medicine (IOM).  In addition, he serves as Vice Chair of the US National Research Council.  He is Chancellor Emeritus and James B. Duke Professor of Medicine at Duke University and the past President and CEO of the Duke University Health System. Previously, Dr. Dzau was the Hersey Professor of Medicine and Chairman of Medicine at Harvard Medical School’s Brigham and Women’s Hospital, as well as Chairman of  Medicine at Stanford University.

He is an internationally acclaimed leader and scientist has made a significant impact through his seminal research in cardiovascular medicine and genetics. His important work on the renin angiotensin system  paved the way for the contemporary understanding of cardiovascular disease and the development of drugs (i.e. ACE  inhibitors) as widely used, lifesaving drugs for hypertension and heart failure. His pioneering research in cardiovascular regeneration led to the Paracrine Hypothesis of stem cell action and the strategy of direct cardiac reprogramming.

Since arriving at the National Academies, Dr Dzau has designed and led important initiatives such as the Commission on a Global Health Risk Framework for the Future; the Human Gene Editing Initiative; and Vital Directions for Health and Health Care.  The launch of the NAM Grand Challenges in Healthy Longevity represents his vision to inspire across disciplines and sectors to coalesce around a shared priority and audacious goal to advance health.

Thomas Rando is Professor of Neurology and Neurological Sciences at Stanford where he is the Director of the Glenn Laboratories for the Biology of Aging. He is also Chief of Neurology and Director of the Rehabilitation Research & Development Center of Excellence at the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System. He is a founding director of the Muscular Dystrophy Association clinic at the Stanford Medical Center. Research in the Rando laboratory  focuses on tissue-specific stem cells in aging and disease, and on pathogenetic mechanisms and gene therapy for muscular dystrophies. His research on aging has demonstrated that it is possible to identify biochemical stimuli that can induce stem cells in old tissues to repair injuries as effectively as in young tissues, and this work has broad implications for the fields of regenerative medicine and stem cell transplantation.

He is a member of several professional societies, including the American Neurological Association. He is a former Paul Beeson Physician Faculty Scholar in Aging awarded by the American Federation for Aging Research and a former Ellison Medical Foundation Senior Scholar in Aging. In 2005, he received an NIH Director’s Pioneer Award for his groundbreaking research in stem cell biology. He received a BA from Harvard College, MD from Harvard Medical School and PhD in Cell and Developmental Biology from Harvard University.

Kris Rebillot, the Buck Institute’s Director of Communications, started her career as a news reporter in radio and television. She came to the Buck in 2003 and developed its first media relations program; she’s been a witness to the Institute’s growth and success and to the dramatic increase in the public’s interest in healthy aging. She enjoys working with Buck scientists, helping translate their work for the general public. Kris lives in Petaluma, CA, where she chairs the city’s Senior Advisory Committee and is involved in efforts to make Petaluma an age-friendly community.

Jason is the Executive Director of the UsAgainstAlzheimer’s Center for Brain Health Equity and head of the LatinosAgainstAlzheimer’s Coalition.

Jason has help establish UsAgainstAlzheimer’s as a hub for driving brain health equity through patient-centered public health promotion strategies, equity-centered research and policy analysis. From clinical trial inclusion to paid family leave for dementia caregivers, he champions brain health equity at every level of the healthcare system.

He has contributed to peer-reviewed research on the socioeconomic impacts of brain health inequities and on the science of community engagement in brain research with partners such as the USC Roybal Institute on Aging and the University of Kansas Alzheimer’s Disease Center. He is currently a co-investigator of the NIH-funded FOREVER (Foundations of Representative Engagement, Valid & Effective Recruitment) in Alzheimer’s Research project with Dr. Jonathan Jackson of Massachusetts General Hospital.

Prior to UsAgainstAlzheimer’s, Jason held senior positions at two of the nation’s leading Latino-serving organizations, UnidosUS and LULAC National Educational Service Centers, Inc.

Jason is a Google Next Generation Policy Leader, an Aspen Ideas Health Fellow, and he serves on the board of the Youth Movement Against Alzheimer’s. He has been quoted by The Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Univision and others on health equity research and policy issues.

Jason is from South Texas and graduated from Georgetown University.

Julie Rovner is Chief Washington Correspondent for Kaiser Health News and host of the all-women panelist podcast, KHN’s “What the Health?”

Prior to joining KHN in 2014, she spent 15 years as health policy correspondent for NPR, specializing in the politics of health care. Rovner served as NPR's lead correspondent covering the passage and implementation of the 2010 health overhaul bill, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.

A noted expert on health policy issues, Rovner is the author of a critically-praised reference book Health Care Politics and Policy A-Z. Rovner is also co-author of the book Managed Care Strategies 1997, and has contributed to several other books, including two chapters in Intensive Care: How Congress Shapes Health Policy, edited by political scientists Norman Ornstein and Thomas Mann.

In 2005, Rovner was awarded the Everett McKinley Dirksen Award for distinguished reporting of Congress for her coverage of the passage of the Medicare prescription drug law and its aftermath.

Rovner has appeared on television on the PBS NewsHour, CNN, C-Span, MSNBC, and NBC Nightly News. Her articles have appeared in dozens of national newspapers and magazines.

Prior to NPR, Rovner covered health for National Journal’s CongressDaily and before that for the Congressional Quarterly Weekly Report, specializing in health care financing, abortion, welfare, and disability issues. She has been a regular contributor to the British medical journal The Lancet, and her columns on patients' rights for the magazine Business and Health won her a share of the 1999 Jesse H. Neal National Business Journalism Award.

Rovner has a degree in political science from University of Michigan-Ann Arbor.

Dr. John Rowe is the Julius B. Richmond Professor of Health Policy and Aging at the Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health. Previously, from 2000 until his retirement in late 2006, Dr. Rowe served as Chairman and CEO of Aetna, Inc., one of the nation's leading health care and related benefits organizations. Before his tenure at Aetna, from 1988 to 2000, Dr. Rowe served as President and Chief Executive Officer of Mount Sinai NYU Health, one of the nation’s largest academic health care organizations. From 1988 to 1998, prior to the Mount Sinai-NYU Health merger, Dr. Rowe was President of the Mount Sinai Hospital and the Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York City.

Before joining Mount Sinai, Dr. Rowe was a Professor of Medicine and the founding Director of the Division on Aging at the Harvard Medical School, as well as Chief of Gerontology at Boston’s Beth Israel Hospital. Dr. Rowe has received many honors and awards for his research and health policy efforts regarding care of the elderly. Currently, Dr. Rowe leads the MacArthur Foundation’s Network on An Aging Society.

Dr. Rowe is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a member of the National Academy of Medicine of the National Academy of Sciences. He. served on the Board of Trustees of the Rockefeller Foundation, and was Chair of the Board of Fellows of Harvard Medical School and the Board of Trustees at the Marine Biological Laboratory in Woods Hole, Massachusetts. Dr. Rowe is a former Commissioner of the Medicare Payment Advisory Commission (MedPAC).

Ken Stern is the chair of the Longevity Project. He also leads the creative and business teams at Palisades Media Ventures, focusing on creating new and innovative programming for digital platforms and television.

Stern is the author of “With Charities For All: Why Charities Are Failing and A Better Way to Give” (Doubleday 2013).  He is also a frequent contributor to publications such as The Atlantic, Slate, the Daily Beast, the Washington Post and the Chronicle of Philanthropy.

Prior to launching Palisades, Stern was the CEO of National Public Radio. During his tenure, NPR’s radio audience more than doubled, from under 13 million weekly listeners to more than 26 million weekly listeners. Revenues during his nine years at NPR grew from $75 million to $210 million. Stern also launched NPR’s world class digital efforts which included two satellite channels, its mobile and podcast services, NPR Music and oversaw the successful expansion of NPR.org. During a period of significant retrenchment and downsizing at major news outlet, Stern led the dramatic expansion of NPR News, both domestically and abroad, and its evolution as a key daily news source to tens of millions of people.

Prior to joining NPR, Stern was a senior executive in American International Broadcasting. Earlier in his career, he held positions in Democratic politics. He began his media career with Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich. Stern, a lawyer by training, holds degrees from Haverford College and Yale Law School. He lives in Washington, DC with his wife Beth Cooper and their son Nate.

Dr. Eric Verdin is the president and chief executive officer of the Buck Institute for Research on Aging. A native of Belgium, Dr. Verdin received his Doctorate of Medicine from the University of Liege and completed additional clinical and research training at Harvard Medical School. He has held faculty positions at the University of Brussels, the National Institutes of Health (NIH), and the Picower Institute for Medical Research. Dr. Verdin is also a professor of medicine at University of California, San Francisco.

Dr. Verdin studies how metabolism, diet, and small molecules regulate the activity of HDACs and sirtuins, and thereby the aging process and its associated diseases, including Alzheimer’s. He is a highly cited scientist (top 1 percent) and has been recognized for his research with a Glenn Award for Research in Biological Mechanisms of Aging and a senior scholarship from the Ellison Medical Foundation. He is an elected member of several scientific organizations, including the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the American Society for Clinical Investigation, and the Association of American Physicians. He also serves on the advisory council of National Institute on Drug Abuse at the National Institutes of Health.