Healthy Aging laB
Everyone living in the Circumpolar North should have the opportunity to live a long and healthy life. However, we live in an environment that can be challenging as we get older. The physical environment may be difficult to navigate (extreme weather, changing climate, high costs of living, etc) but it is important to remember that the social environment also changes for us as we age. As more adults are choosing to age-in-place and retire at home here in Alaska, we are noticing real gaps in our knowledge about what healthy aging means to our elders and how we can achieve it in our Arctic environment.
The Healthy Aging Lab at UAA works to understand the shifting sociocultural landscape for aging adults and identify service needs to facilitate healthy aging-in-place. We do this in a variety of ways, from Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) projects, to community-engaged courses in health sciences, to individual service-learning projects—our work aims to benefit not only the student (and future geriatric workforce), but the senior community as well.
FEATURED PROJECTS
NEWS & Stories
Dr. Jean Snyder’s career in family medicine has spanned decades, continents, and nearly every corner of patient care. Now, after years of serving communities across Alaska and beyond, she has been recognized as the Alaska Family Physician of the Year by the Alaska Academy of Family Physicians.
Division of Population Health Sciences Associate Professor Dr. Britteny Howell recently published two new studies that investigates the relationship between aging and mental health. Her research seeks to explore gaps in existing literature about how the experience of aging is shape by factors like social context, culture, activities, beliefs, environment, and more.
Dr. Corrie Whitmore, an associate professor in the Division of Population Health Sciences, and her team at UAA’s Center for Behavioral Health Research and Services are celebrating the recent publication of a new article. The paper, which was published in the Dec. 2025 issue of Nursing for Women’s Health, offers a framework and actionable strategies for nurses to improve communication and patient experience in discussions around substance use and contraception.
School of Social Work Assistant Professor Amana Mbise and ISER Research Assistant Professor Nathan West are exploring the relationships that Black barbershops play in men's health. Their community-based research prioritizes the lived experiences of the men they talk to, and is revealing how barbershops function not just as grooming spaces, but as social and cultural hubs.
As a neonatal nurse practitioner at Providence Alaska Children’s Hospital and adjunct faculty member for the UAA School of Nursing, Doctor of Nursing Practice alumna and graduate student hooding ceremony speaker for the fall Class of 2025 Stacy Brunquist weaves education into everything she does — training new caregivers, guiding parents learning to care for their newborns, and sharing knowledge with professionals from Utqiaġvik to Sitka.
The UAA Healthy Aging Research Laboratory is partially supported by an Institutional Development Award (IDeA) from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) under grant number 2P20GM103395. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily reflect the official views of Alaska INBRE.
Upcoming Events
Contact Us:
Associate Professor Britteny Howell
Phone: (907) 786-6565
Email: bmhowell2@alaska.edu
UAA Professional Studies Building
2533 Providence Dr., Suite 204
Anchorage, AK 99508
Mailing Address:
UAA Healthy Aging Lab
3211 Providence Dr., PSB 206B
Anchorage, AK 99508
