To serve as this year's Division 20 president is already a major highlight of my career. When I take stock of the rich history of past division members, executive committees, and presidents, I am humbled at the opportunity to serve in this role. As I have shared with our Division 20 team, I view my role as one that listens, facilitates, and takes the time to ensure that everyone's contributions are recognized for the brilliant work they are accomplishing, all in service to support Division 20's mission and its membership. I am already impressed by what our committee chairs have in store for you (a few of those initiatives and updates are shared here). For this presidential year, our throughline is about how we adapt, grow, innovate, and belong.
Aging is, in many ways, a series of transitions: in health, in relationships, in identity, and in the systems and policies that support us. These transitions can be disorienting. But they can also be a source of strength, revealing capacities for adaptation and growth that do not always show themselves in steadier times. They ask us to meet the moment, to understand what belonging looks like as our circumstances shift. And they remind us that change, however difficult, can open new and better paths forward for individuals and for the systems built to serve them. As scientists, researchers, clinicians, and advocates in the field of aging, we're facing our own moment of change, with a real opportunity to act collectively, not just individually, in the science, practice, and policy that shape aging in this country and across the globe.
This year's division programming will build on the strong foundation laid by past presidential initiatives. It's an opportunity to explore our collective resilience and to bring forward new thinking on how we design, study, support, and advocate for the aging experience. We invite submissions that speak to the following themes:
- Enhancing resilience through transition: For example, what are the psychological, social, biological, and/or policy-level sources of strength and adaptation as older adults (and the systems that support them) navigate change, life transitions, or loss?
- Innovating design and methods at the intersection of health and aging: For example, what novel research designs, measurement, treatment, and intervention approaches, or technological, environmental, and policy innovations can advance our understanding of health and aging together?
- Addressing belonging and meaning: for those we care for, and for ourselves as a collective: For example, how do connection, belonging, and the policies that shape access to care, including caregiving, palliative care, and end-of-life experiences, influence well-being and quality of life?
I would like to end this entry by acknowledging the excellent work of our division's Executive Committee in the past year; the wonderful contributions of Wally Boot, PhD, rotating off as past president, and Becky Allen, PhD, who served us so well as president this past year; and by welcoming Sherry Beaudreau, PhD, ABPP, as our incoming president-elect. It's an honor to serve with you all and to contribute to our field's continued growth and impact.