Faculty and staff
Faculty
| Carmel Bitondo Dyer, MD, Executive Director of the Consortium on Aging and the Roy M. and Phyllis Gough Huffington Chair in Gerontology, is Professor and Executive Vice-Chairman of Internal Medicine and Director of the Division of Geriatric and Palliative Medicine at the University of Texas Medical School at Houston. She is a 1988 graduate of Baylor College of Medicine, where she completed her Internal Medicine residency and Geriatrics Fellowship. She founded the geriatrics programs at UTHealth School of Medicine in 2007 and at the Harris County Hospital District and also founded the Texas Elder Abuse and Mistreatment Institute. Her research and publications have been in the area of elder mistreatment. She was a delegate to the 2005 White House Conference on Aging and has addressed the U.S. Senate. She has received national and local recognition for her teaching abilities and her dedication to the health care of older persons.Dr. Dyer's Curriculum Vitae. |  |
| Sharon Ostwald, PhD, RN, FGSA, Deputy Director of the Consortium on Aging, is Professor at The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston and the Isla Carroll Turner Chair in Gerontological Nursing. Prior to that she held the Theodore J. and Mary E. Trumble Professorship in Aging Research. She is an adjunct professor in the UTHealth School of Public Health and School of Medicine. She received her Bachelor of Science in Nursing from Wheaton College and her Master of Science in Public Health and her PhD in Adult Education from the University of Minnesota. Prior to moving to Texas, Dr. Ostwald taught for 20 years at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health and School of Nursing. She was certified by the ANA as an Adult Nurse Practitioner in 1976 and as a Gerontological Nurse Practitioner in 1993. From 1996-2004, she served as the Director of the UTHealth School of Nursing’s Center on Aging. Dr. Ostwald has received numerous awards for outstanding research, teaching and community service, has presented and consulted nationally and internationally, and has over 50 publications. Dr. Ostwald's Curriculum Vitae. |  |
| W. Andrew Achenbaum, PhD is the Gerson and Sabina Professor of Global Aging and Professor of History and Social Work at the University of Houston. Dr. Achenbaum received his undergraduate degree in American Studies from Amherst College and his doctorate in History from the University of Michigan. He is the author of numerous peer-reviewed articles and books, including Older Americans: Vital Communities—Toward a Bold Vision of Societal Aging. Dr. Achenbaum's Curriculum Vitae. |  |
| Thomas R. Cole, PhD is the McGovern Chair in Medical Humanities and Director of the McGovern Center for Humanities and Ethics at the University of Texas Health Science Center in Houston. He is also a Visiting Professor in Religious Studies at Rice University. Cole graduated from Yale University (B.A. Philosophy, 1971), Wesleyan University (M.A., History, 1975) and the University of Rochester, (Ph.D., History, 1981).Dr. Cole has published many articles and several books on the history of aging and humanistic gerontology. His book The Journey of Life: A Cultural History of Aging in America (Cambridge University Press, 1992) was nominated for a Pulitzer Prize. Dr. Cole's Curriculum Vitae. |  |
| Kathleen Pace Murphy, PhD is an adjunct faculty member at The University of Texas School of Nursing at Houston. She graduated from D'Youville College (BSN, 1980)and Texas Woman's University (MS, 1988 and PhD, 1993). In 1996 she graduated from The University of Texas School of Nursing as a Geriatric/Adult Nurse Practitioner. Dr. Murphy's Curriculum Vitae |  |
Administrative Staff
Lyn Emerich, PT, MS is the Administrative Director of the Consortium on Aging. Lyn received her BS degree in biology from Bucknell University and her MS in physical therapy from Duke University. After more than 35 years of clinical care, management and administration in rehabilitation hospitals, Lyn joined the Consortium on Aging in December 2009.
