Healthy Aging Lab

 

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

health education program

improv to improve

aging in anchorage

 

NEWS & Stories

  • UAA faculty members, Travis Hedwig, Melissa Chlupach, Britteny Howell, and Amana Mbise

    Scholarly Chronicles: Faculty Voices in Print

    UAA faculty, including those from the College of Health, are recognized for their published research, academic papers, and books.

  • Jennifer Spencer smiling

    Hidden Homelessness

     |  Rachel Musselwhite for True North Magazine  |  , , , ,

    The UAA Hunger and Homelessness Support Network (HHSN) was created to identify and combat housing insecurities that students face. UAA Alumni and current Academic Advisor Jennifer Spencer is one of the three people serving as HHSN Chair. She explains how she uses her personal experiences with homelessness to help find solutions for students.

  • Panikaa smiling in front of building

    Social Work alumna and UAA’s newest fulbright scholar is New Zealand bound

     |  Matt Jardin  |  , ,

    Ever since she was six years old, Panikaa Teeple, B.S.W. Social Work ’21, knew that spreading love was her life’s purpose. Next year, Teeple will have the opportunity to spread love internationally as UAA’s latest recipient of the Fulbright U.S. Student Program grant, which provides students in more than 140 countries the opportunity to pursue graduate study and research abroad.

  • Cass Pook standing in rural area covered in snow

    Lifetimes of helping

     |  Matt Jardin  |  , ,

    When human services and social work alumna Cass Pook says she has always been a helper, she’s not just referring to her nature as an empathetic and compassionate listener. “Culturally, it's in my DNA to be a helper,” said Pook. “Looking back on it throughout history, 100 or 200 years ago I would have been doing the same thing. I was born to be a social worker.”

  • Lorem ipsum

    Growing Alaska's research community

     |  Michelle Saport  |  ,

    UAA alumna and associate professor Holly Martinson hopes the new Biomed U-RISE program "lights a fire" in Alaska's research community by empowering undergraduate students with lab experience, mentorship and financial assistance. Martinson and co-PI, Professor Tracey Burke, welcomed the first cohort this academic year and will soon open applications for cohort two.

 

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.

 


division of population health sciences




 

Upcoming Events

 

Contact Us:
Associate Professor Britteny Howell
Phone: (907) 786-6565
Email: bmhowell2@alaska.edu

 

Location:

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

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