2017 Conference Leadership

Barbara Cochrane, 2017 Conference Chair
Director, de Tornyay Center for Healthy Aging
Professor, UW School of Nursing

With over 25 years of research, teaching, and nursing practice dedicated to gerontology – and a particular focus on older women’s health — Barb has been an enthusiastic contributor to the UW Elder Friendly Futures Initiative since 2009. At that time, faculty from the Schools of Nursing, Pharmacy, and Social Work formed a think tank to explore trends in aging, dream big, and plan for the future. Led by Nancy Hooyman from the School of Social Work, the original report of that work included a proposal for conferences that would serve diverse audiences interested in visioning the future together. The proposal was the genesis for our annual Elder Friendly Futures conferences, which started out small in 2012, but has far exceeded our hopes for community engagement, knowledge dissemination, and new collaborations and insights. We are thrilled to be celebrating this sixth EFF conference. It truly reflects the importance of Multiple Voices Shaping Our Communities, thanks to our co-providing schools at the UW, generous sponsors, active and engaged planning committee, and this year’s co-chair, Keri Pollock, from Aging Wisdom — a creative and tireless advocate and visionary for Elder Friendly Futures.

Keri Pollock, 2017 Conference Co-Chair
Director of Marketing and Communications
Aging Wisdom, The Experts in Aging Well

“Aging is not ‘lost youth’ but a new stage of opportunity and strength.” ~ Betty Friedan

Spend a few minutes with Keri and two things become immediately apparent: she is passionate about coffee and work that benefits older adults and their families. Keri brings more than 20 years of marketing, communications, training and business development knowledge and expertise in the field of aging. At the core of everything she does is a personal mission to get meaningful, actionable information to people when they most need it. Keri is known for being fearless in bringing people together to accomplish amazing things.

Aging Wisdom® is an Aging Life Care™ practice (also known as geriatric care management) serving King, south Snohomish and Whatcom Counties. agingwisdom.com