Featured News
Every day VCU Gerontology and College of Health Professions students, alumni, faculty and staff do extraordinary things. Read more about our latest achievements and Department news here.
Student scholarships, real world experience supporting older adults experiencing homelessness
VCU Gerontology and the Virginia Center on Aging are dedicated to supporting students through scholarships and real world professional experience. Recently, VCU funded three students to conduct oral history interviews with older adults experiencing homelessness in the Richmond community.
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With new federal grant, VCU project aims to turn shared meals into a gateway to better health for older adults
A new initiative led by Virginia Commonwealth University researchers aims to strengthen one of the most important — and often overlooked — support systems for older adults: a shared meal.
Prescribing connection: Ph.D. student researches power of community for dementia patients
While dementia care largely focuses on medical interventions, social isolation remains an overlooked factor shaping quality of life for patients and their loved ones. Cathleen “Cate” Hawks, a student in the VCU College of Health Professions’ Ph.D. Program in Health Related Sciences, hopes her doctoral research, aided by a large private donation, will change that.
Community Gerontology: Creating change where you are
Help shape the lives of millions by building programs, influencing policy and transforming systems that make a difference. A degree in gerontology is a direct pathway to well paying and secure leadership roles in aging services, public health, nonprofit management, health care systems and beyond.
Disrupt Ageism: Spotify Wrapped & your listening age
If you’re a Spotify user, you’ve probably seen the 2025 "Spotify Wrapped” – an annual personalized re-cap of users' listening history. This year, Spotify included a portion that designates users a specific age based on their listening preferences.
VCU researcher leads interdisciplinary NIH-funded effort to build fairer measures of value for Alzheimer’s drugs
As the federal government prepares to negotiate prescription drug prices for the first time, a VCU College of Health Professions researcher is leading an effort to determine whether current methods for judging the “value” of new Alzheimer’s treatments are accurate — and whether they disadvantage vulnerable older adults.
VCU’s Annie Rhodes champions dementia care improvements in Virginia
For Annie Rhodes, Ph.D., what started as a side project during her doctoral studies at VCU has blossomed into a statewide tool that’s reshaping how Virginia tracks and supports individuals diagnosed with dementia and their caregivers.
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Inspira Advantage interview with Jennifer M. Yañez Pryor, M.A., M.S., LALFA, Gerontology Graduate Program Director
Inspira Advantage recently interviewed Jennifer M. Yañez Pryor, M.A, M.S., LALFA, Virginia Commonwealth University Gerontology Graduate Program Director to discuss why VCU Gerontology's program stands out from the competition and which qualities students can build during the gerontology program at VCU.
Timeless Newtown: Embracing every generation
Tracey Gendron, Ph.D., chair and professor of VCU Department of Gerontology and executive director of Virginia Center on Aging, has been invited to speak about her book “Ageism Unmasked: Exploring Age Bias and How to End It” as part of town wide read in Newtown, CT.
Interdepartment collaboration expands student perspective on aging and care
A collaboration between the Radiology Sciences’ Timmerie Cohen, Ph.D. and Gerontology’s Jenny Inker, Ph.D. is examining and hopes to ultimately shift the attitudes of Radiation Sciences students toward aging and older adults. Their work represents some of the first research to directly address ageism across health care professions.
