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SBN BIGG event

🚨Save the Date!🚨 Please join us for Dr. Dotson’s CE Vascular Contributions to Depression in Black Older Adults: Implications for Brain Health Equity on 10/28 @ 11 AM PDT/ 2 PM EDT.

Please join us for Dr. Hill-Jarrett’s upcoming CE session: Afrofuturism as a Praxis for Community Knowledge Co-Production and Equity in Black Women’s Cognitive Aging on 10/03 @ 1 PM PDT/ 4 PM EDT. 

Check out the upcoming 9/23 CE talk and share it with your networks. BIGG members get a discounted price. There are limited spaces, so hurry!

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BIGG Week 2024

BIGG 2024 Week Agenda

BIGGweek 2024 Agenda
2024 #BIGGRollcall

Join us on X (Twitter), FaceBook, and LinkedIn as we take the BIGG Roll Call                            

 


The legacy panel

The Legacy of Black Elders: Documenting and Preserving Stories and Contributions is a thought-provoking webinar that celebrates Black elders' rich history and enduring impact on society. This session will explore the importance of preserving older Black generations' stories, experiences, and cultural contributions, offering insights into how these legacies have shaped aging communities. Attendees will learn about the challenges and opportunities in documenting these narratives and how younger generations can continue to honor and amplify the wisdom and achievements of Black elders for future generations.                            

 

Speakers:

Jordan Evans - Co-founder, Arts & Aging

Christina Peoples - Founder, Gero What!

Adrianne B. Jones - CEO, Senior Resources & Consulting Services, LLC

Raina Croff - Associate Professor, Oregon Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center

 

Empowering Communities

Empowering Communities: Black Perspectives in Gerontology and Geriatrics focuses on the unique experiences and insights of Black professionals and elders in the fields of aging and healthcare. This webinar will explore how culturally-informed approaches to gerontology and geriatrics can improve outcomes for Black older adults. Attendees will gain valuable knowledge on how to advance equity and empowerment within aging Black communities.              

 

Speakers:

DeLon Canterbury, PharmD - Founder, GeriatRx

Antonius Skipper, PhD - Assistant Professor, Georgia State University

Tanisha Hill-Jarrett, PhD - Assistant Professor, UCSF

Ethlyn Mcqueen-Gibson, DNP - Professor, Old Dominion University

Sonja Gunter, LPN - Nurse Administrator/CEO, Senior 911.

 
Resilience and recognition

Resilience and Recognition: Advancing Black Contributions in the Field of Aging is a dynamic webinar that highlights the significant role Black professionals and communities have played in advancing the field of aging. This session will explore the unique challenges Black scholars, practitioners, and elders face, while also celebrating their resilience, innovation, and contributions to gerontology and aging research. Participants will gain insights into the historical and contemporary achievements of Black individuals in aging, the importance of recognizing their work, and strategies for fostering greater inclusivity and equity in the field moving forward.

 

Speakers:

Tamara Baker, PhD - Professor, University of North Carolina

Aisha Young, MA, ThM, ADC - Founder, African Americans in Gerontology

Vonetta Dotson, PhD - Founder, Cerebro Fit

Christopher Howard, PhD - Founder, C.L. Howard Memory & Rehabilitation Services, LLC

 
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BIGG Week 2023

In collaboration with HBCU Alliance at GSA, we hosted our second preconference workshop at GSA, titled: Bringing Focus on Minoritized and HBCU-trained Scholars and Practitioners in the Field of Aging.

§  The 1.5-day pre-conference workshop at the annual Gerontological Society of America conference facilitated connections and promoted relationship-building opportunities for scholars from HBCUs and Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs). It promoted cross-disciplinary and institutional collaboration and communication among researchers, supported trainees and early career investigators, and established wider scientific, clinical, and public awareness of Black health and aging trends. Participants broadened their perspectives on new and emerging trends in equity-based research and practice in Black communities, highlighting how addressing these trends can assist in recalibrating their research programs and clinical practice. This interactive workshop featured diverse speakers who are alum and/or have a current affiliation with an HBCU, who will share their experiences incorporating an equity lens in their research design and clinical practice, working with community stakeholders, non-harmful reporting of research findings, and grant mechanisms that have been successful in furthering their research careers.

 

§  Confirmed Speakers (in no particular order):

·      Tamara Baker, PhD – University of North Carolina

·      Kalisha Bonds Johnson, PhD – Emory University

·      Fayron Epp, PhD – Emory University

·      Roland Thorpe Jr., PhD – Johns Hopkins University

.   James Appleby ScD – Chief Executive Officer of GSA

.   Melissa Gerald, PhD – National Institute on Aging

.   Staja Booker, PhD – University of Florida

.   Amy Thierry, PhD – Xavier University Louisiana

.   Darlingtina Esiaka, PhD – University of Kentucky College of Medicine

.   Antonius Skipper, PhD – Georgia State University

.   Candidus Nwakasi, PhD – University of Connecticut 

 

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BIGG Week 2022

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Recruiting Black older adults in your study: 3 important factors to consider

Recruiting Black older adults in your study: 3 important factors to consider

Improving recruitment of black participants into gerontological and geriatric research activities is a top priority as Black older adults are less likely to participate in clinical trials and research studies. This is not surprising given the history of scientific and medical misconduct towards the Black community. As a black gerontological researcher, I have also struggled with recruiting Black older adults into my research studies. Recruitment of Black older adults is complex and there are three important things to consider when designing your recruitment plan.

  1. Black older adults are not a homogenous group. Black older adults are diverse and vary substantially in terms of disease risk factors, disease-related outcomes, or service outcomes. For example, Black African immigrants may differ from African Americans in terms of cardiovascular risk factors. Similarly Black Hispanics may differ from non- Hispanic Blacks in terms of health-related behaviors, because the Black older adults are an heterogenous group, it is important to define your study population prior to developing your recruitment plan.
  2. Consider potential barriers to participant enrollment: Along with historical distrust of the scientific and medical community and fear of harm, Black older adults may experience barriers to participation, such as transportation to study appointments. For example, Black older adults with serious illnesses such as dementia may require caregiver support to attend study visits. Some researchers have suggested alternative modes of data collection such as through telephone, video conferencing or home visits to reduce these barriers.
  3. Recruitment strategies are successful when they are tailored to the particular community of individuals involved.For example, community-based recruitment strategies such as religion-based recruitment approaches have been proven effective to build trust and study enrollment, largely due to the targeted recruitment strategies. However, a disadvantage is that it captures a homogenous group of older black adults. Researchers seeking to include a diverse group of Black older adults may need to employ multiple recruitment strategies.

These are 3 important factors to consider when developing your study recruitment plan involving Black Older Adults. Stay tuned for more thoughts on this!

REFERENCES

Braunstein, J. B., Sherber, N. S., Schulman, S. P., Ding, E. L., & Powe, N. R. (2008). Race, medical researcher distrust, perceived harm, and willingness to participate in cardiovascular prevention trials. Medicine, 87(1), 1–9. https://doi.org/10.1097/MD.0b013e3181625d78

Graham, L. A., Ngwa, J., Ntekim, O., Ogunlana, O., Wolday, S., Johnson, S., Johnson, M., Castor, C., Fungwe, T. V., & Obisesan, T. O. (2017). Best strategies to recruit and enroll elderly Blacks into clinical and biomedical research. Clinical Interventions in Aging, 13, 43–50. https://doi.org/10.2147/CIA.S130112

LaVeist-Ramos, T. A., Galarraga, J., Thorpe, R. J., Jr, Bell, C. N., & Austin, C. J. (2012). Are black Hispanics black or Hispanic? Exploring disparities at the intersection of race and ethnicity. Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, 66(7), e21. https://doi.org/10.1136/jech.2009.103879

Marcantonio, E. R., Aneja, J., Jones, R. N., Alsop, D. C., Fong, T. G., Crosby, G. J., Culley, D. J., Cupples, L. A., & Inouye, S. K. (2008). Maximizing clinical research participation in vulnerable older persons: identification of barriers and motivators. Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, 56(8), 1522–1527. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1532- 5415.2008.01829.x

Turkson-Ocran, R. N., Nmezi, N. A., Botchway, M. O., Szanton, S. L., Golden, S. H., Cooper, L. A., & Commodore-Mensah, Y. (2020). Comparison of Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors Among African Immigrants and African Americans: An Analysis of the 2010 to 2016 National Health Interview Surveys. Journal of the American Heart Association,  9(5), e013220. https://doi.org/10.1161/JAHA.119.013220