View the recorded webinar

Creative expression has helped to enhance the quality of life and promote lifelong learning for many older adults. Join us on August 3^rd to learn how community programs around our region promote creative aging by engaging older adults in participatory arts programs. Whether it’s a storytelling program that infuses creativity into care relationships for people with dementia, a painting class at a local library, or a pottery workshop at a housing community – the arts, in any form, can have a powerful impact!

Kathleen Mundell
Kathleen Mundell is the Director of Creative Aging and Traditional Arts Programs at the Maine Arts Commission. Since 2010, she has worked with the University of New England Geriatric Education Center on a training program for health care professionals on the positive impact of traditional culture on healthy aging by presenting master elder traditional artists as role models for healthy aging. A trained folklorist with 30 years’ experience in public programming, she co-authored “Life Review Projects: A Guide for Seniors and Senior Citizen Groups” with folklorist Dr. Steven Zeitlin as part of an elder artists series sponsored by the Arts Council of Rockland County, New York.

Dr. Robert Santulli
Dr. Santulli received his B.A. at Yale University and his M.D. at Columbia University.  He completed his psychiatric residency at Columbia-Presbyterian Medical Center in New York City, and practiced psychiatry in the New York City area before moving to New Hampshire in 1990.  Dr. Santulli retired as Director of Geriatric Psychiatry in June 2014, after 24 years at Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center.

Dr. Santulli is the Dementia Programs Advisor for the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Aging Resource Center.  He is the founder and medical director of three community programs for people with memory disorders and their family members: Memory Café, a monthly social and activity program; Perspectives, a program which brings community members to Dartmouth’s Visual Arts Center to view and discuss artworks; and The Recollections, a singing group comprised of both community members and Dartmouth students.  In winter 2017, Dr. Santulli will teach a new course to Dartmouth undergraduates, Living with Dementia.  This course, which will feature both classroom and experiential, community-based learning, is being supported by the Dartmouth Center for the Advancement of Learning.

Liz Harper
Liz Harper is the Vice President of Maine’s MRSCA Board and works at ARCH Beta in Augusta, Maine.  She loves helping people have a richer and more satisfying life. Liz was a licensed social worker for about 20 years and retired from State service after about 26 years. She has a Master’s in Public Administration and her background includes working with people with Mental Illness, Substance Abuse, Mental Retardation, and Sexual/Physical Abuse Histories. Liz has worked with children and adults of all ages for 45 years.

Deanna Jones
Deanna is the Executive Director at Thompson Senior Center in Woodstock, Vermont. The Thompson Center is a resource and advocate for the senior population providing timely support on issues that affect aging in its rural community. TSC’s programs and activities promote the physical, intellectual, and social well being of the adult community to enhance dignity, self-worth, and independence. In addition, the senior center provides a gathering place for the community.