Geriatric Mental Health Disaster and Emergency Preparedness

John A. Toner, EdD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Medical Psychology, Director of Residency/Fellowship Programs and Co-Director of the Statewide Geriatric Psychiatry Residency/Fellowship Program at the Columbia University Stroud Center and Department of Psychiatry. He is a Senior Research Scientist at the NY State Psychiatric Institute and holds interdepartmental and interuniversity appointments in the Mailman School of Public Health, where he has been a recipient of the Calderone Prize for Faculty Research, and the State University of New York, Upstate Medical University, where he is a director of the Center for Aging Research, Education and Services. He is Director of the Columbia-New York Geriatric Education Center of the Consortium of New York Geriatric Education Centers and the Rural Geriatric Mental Health Initiative (POISE). Trained in gerontology and geriatric neuropsychology, Dr. Toner has devoted over 20 years to educating and recruiting medical doctors and other health care professionals to work in medically underserved areas. He is an editorial board member and Fellow of numerous scientific journals and professional societies.

||Therese M. Mierswa, MSW, is a Fordham University Andrus Scholar Geriatric Social Worker currently serving as the Coordinator for assisted living in the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers Retirement Community in Ossining, New York. Prior to this position she was the Program Coordinator for the Columbia University Statewide Geriatric Psychiatry Residency Program. Ms. Mierswa has a Certificate of Training from the AMA and National Disaster Life Support Foundation in Basic Disaster Life Support, a certificate in Geriatric Mental Health and Emergency Preparedness from the CNYGEC, and CMI Education Institute credits in crisis debriefing for survivors of trauma and violence.|Judith L. Howe, PhD, is Associate Professor in the Brookdale Department of Geriatrics, Mount Sinai School of Medicine; Associate Director/Education and Evaluation, VISN 3 GRECC at the James J. Peters VAMC; and Director, Consortium of New York Geriatric Education Centers. She is a Board member of the Association for Gerontology in Higher Education (AGHE) and President of the National Association of Geriatric Education Centers. Dr. Howe has published and presented extensively on a range of aging topics and serves on two editorial boards. Dr. Howe is a Fellow of the New York Academy of Medicine, AGHE, and The Gerontological Society of America